Legislative Update
Greetings!
I hope this newsletter finds you safe and warm after the snowy weather we had this week.
New Christmas Lights in Waseca
Last week, after writing my weekly newsletter, I was honored to witness the lighting of the new Christmas season lights in downtown Waseca on Thursday night. The new lights look amazing! Of course, the fresh snow in the background really put us in the Christmas spirit! Congratulations to all who supported this effort through their organizational and personal donations!
Owatonna Main Street Lighted Parade
On Friday night, I had the honor of donning a yellow vest and helping with the Owatonna Main Street Lighted Parade. At last report, there were over 80 units in the parade and the lighting of the of Central Park was spectacular!
I was honored to be photographed with Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce Events Director, Julie Seykora. Now you know who turns the lights on in Central Square!
Great to hear the Owatonna High School Choir perform.
 Many thanks to the Owatonna City Staff for setting up the tree and park lights for the season!
K-12 Education Funding
Last week, during my Coffee with Tom in Owatonna, we discussed K-12 Education. From that discussion, I accepted a little bit of homework as you will see below.
During the meeting I mentioned that we significantly increased the K-12 budget during the calendar year 2023 budget session which funds fiscal years 2024 – 2025. For clarification fiscal years 2024 – 2025 equates to calendar year July 1st, 2023 – June 30th, 2025. Currently, the State of Minnesota is operating in fiscal year 2026.
Thus, in calendar year 2023, the legislature increased the K-12 education budget by $2.3B of which our Minnesota school districts received $1.8B. Furthermore, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) received a 21% budget increase which included funding for 40 new Fulltime Equivalent (FTEs) employees.
In addition, during this same budget cycle, 65+ new mandates were imposed upon our independent school districts. I use the term 65+ because I have seen a summary spreadsheet showing over 80 new mandates. However, some of the mandates can be combined with others, so 65+ is a good overall summary.
Furthermore, personnel costs represent the most significant operating cost for our school districts. The one-time $1.8B increase helped implement Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST), Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML), and Unemployment Insurance (UI) payments for seasonal employees (like our lunchroom workers and bus drivers) who are now compensated over the summer months when school is not in-session. However, these costs, which are mandated and pushed down to our school districts, are rising faster than the General Fund budget. As I stated earlier, personnel costs represent the highest cost for each school district and mandated programs like ESST, PFML, and UI significantly impact our school districts over the long term. While these programs are designed to help our school district employees, can our school districts sustain them?
As an added bonus, I want to show you the impact of our two largest budgets below. K-12 Education and the Health and Human Services budgets represent [$25.697B + $23.999B = $49.696B / $66.874B] = 74.31% of the overall budget. Source data from the MMB table below.
Here is a pie chart showing the State of Minnesota General Fund Budget:
  Source: State of Minnesota Office of Management and Budget (MMB)
Coffee with Tom
Our next meeting in Waseca will be on Friday, December 12th at the Waseca Chamber of Commerce from 12:00pm-1:00pm.
Please feel free to join me for Coffee with Tom at the Owatonna Chamber of Commerce on Friday, January 2nd at the Owatonna Chamber of Commerce from 12:00pm-1:00pm.
Thank you for your support and feedback!
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