Yesterday Governor Dayton released his 2012-13 supplemental budget proposal, totaling $60 million. The most recent economic forecast shows surplus of $323 million for the current budget cycle, so the Governor didn't have to make major changes to the budget. 

(Read a Star Tribune report on his proposal.)

Governor Dayton's plan entails a total spending increase of $60 million, with $44 million of that occuring in the General Fund. The spending increases are completely financed through increases in revenue. The Commissioner of the state's budgeting agency, Minnesota Management & Budget, called the proposal "self-balancing"...

Greetings! It’s been a while. Thanks again for keeping up with Common Cents: Minnesotans weigh in on taxes in spending.

On April 1st, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio continued the conversations taking place on Common Cents about K-12 education on their online forum, InsightNow.

The forum featured a panel of K-12 experts addressing questions like:

• What does it means to reform education?
• How does that happen during a time of budget austerity?

Check out the transcript of the forum

My regular commentary in the Capitol Report this week praises  Minnesota corporate and  business leaders for their commitment to improving early childhood education, a crucial investment that, if done right, will dramatically improve our long-term structural budget problems.    A major cost-driver for the K-12 system is the fact that fully half our kindergartners are not up to speed and ready to learn on the day they arrive.

Sorry for the word length here, but there's a paywall at the Politics in Minnesota website, and a link would only give you the first couple paragraphs.   So here's the full op-ed.:

Even...

I came across an article this morning on the state of New York’s budget woes. I found it relevant to our discussions.

The outgoing governor, David Paterson, called a special session to bring the state’s budget into balance for the incoming governor, Andrew Cuomo. (Both Democrats, for what it's worth.) Governor Paterson wants to reduce spending by $315 million to cover the revenue shortfalls that have emerged since the budget was passed earlier this year;  this represents about 0.6% of the state’s $54 million General Fund budget.  

Governor Paterson is having a hard time getting his proposed spending cuts passed...

We've had about a half dozen of our community workshops now and, I have to say, I leave these community discussions so inspired. The Minnesotans who show up have such thoughtful things to say it honestly blows me away.

The way we have these workshops structured we start with some discussion on some information about where we are and some options for addressing Minnesota's budget challenges. We end with an exercise where we try to find some agreement on what our priorities should be for the next 10-15 years. I have to admit I've started workshops with such diverse views present...