On Wednesday, April 14, the Senate passed its higher education omnibus bill by a vote of 38-29. The bill provides $15 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23.
| Last week, the House and Senate returned from the legislative recess for a busy week of activity leading up to the third committee deadline on Friday, April 9. The third deadline requires committees to act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills. Consequently, last week was filled with committee hearings to review the two-year funding proposals in each of the budget areas. This week, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee reviewed budget bills in order to pass them onto the House and Senate floors. Both the House and Senate engaged in long floor sessions daily as they debated and voted on budget bills. With the 2021 Legislative Session scheduled to conclude on Monday, May 17, the legislature and the governor have four weeks remaining to come to an agreement on a two-year state budget. Higher EducationOn Wednesday, April 14, the Senate passed its higher education omnibus bill by a vote of 38-29. The bill provides $15 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23. The Senate proposal also requests the University to reduce undergraduate resident tuition by three percent and requests the University provide one-time faculty COVID-19 risk stipends to instructors who taught in-person during the spring 2021 semester in which students were present. The Senate bill also reduces funding for Regenerative Medicine Minnesota, a collaborative partnership between the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic for regenerative medicine research, clinical translation, and commercialization by $1.7 million.The House will debate and vote on its higher education omnibus bill on Monday. The House bill provides $39.75 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23, as well as a one-time increase of $2 million for the Natural Resources Research Institute. We are grateful to Governor Walz for recommending full funding of the University's FY22-23 budget request. Unfortunately, the House and Senate recommendations fall short of fulfilling our request and we will continue to advocate for increased funding. |
The biennial total is calculated by adding the first fiscal year’s request to the first and second fiscal years’ request: FY22 + (FY22 + FY23). This table does not include other state funding or cuts in the higher education bills or other legislation. |
Capital InvestmentThis week, the House Capital Investment Committee released its 2021 omnibus bonding bill, recommending $32 million in Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) funding for the University. In February, Governor Walz recommended $56.9 million in HEAPR funding for the University. The Senate Capital Investment Committee has not yet released a bill. The University is requesting funding for three capital investment projects to support asset preservation and STEM education.Although the odd-year legislative session does not usually include a large bonding bill to fund public construction projects, recent odd-year legislative sessions have had smaller bonding bills pass as part of an end-of-session budget agreement between the House, Senate and governor. Bonding bills require a three-fifths majority in both the House and Senate, meaning the bills will need bipartisan support to pass. |