House bill proposes deep agency cuts Legislative update

The House State Government Finance Committee released the delete-all amendment to House File 4016, its omnibus supplemental finance bill late Monday evening. While the bill did not include the mess of anti-labor provisions present in the Senate companion, Chair Sarah Anderson instead is proposing deep, unspecified budget cuts to most state agencies. These cuts include:

• $9.7M cut across all state agencies in FY19, shifting that amount to pay for MNLARS.
• $718K reduction to the LEAN program and Historical Preservation Office at the Department of Administration in FY19 and $1.2M in FY20-21.
• $3.9M operations cut to Department of Revenue in FY19 and $7.8M cut in FY20-21.
• $1.4M operations cut to Department of Human Rights (except the Saint Cloud office) in FY19 and $2.8M in FY20-21.
• $518K operations cut to Cosmetology Examiner’s Board in FY19, and $1M in FY20-21.

The bill also transfers positions in the Data Practices Office from the Department of Administration to the Office of Administrative Hearings, and mandates that Enterprise Software projects be outsourced to a third-party vendor.

The Senate omnibus E-12 supplemental finance bill, Senate File 3928, includes a one-time $125,000 cut to the Perpich Center. This is a budgetary gimmick to shift spending in other areas without actually having to invest new money.

We will update the MAPE Action page as the supplemental spending bills make their way through the markup process.