Local legislators like what they see

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Brown County's lawmakers hailed the compromise budget deal Friday as providing the most tax relief for Minnesotans in 25 years.

State Rep. James Clark, R-New Ulm, called it "a very balanced budget, with $900 million in property tax relief and reform and $912 million in new discretionary spending.

State Sen. Dennis Frederickson, R-New Ulm, noted the per-pupil formula would increase $106 to $4,070. The education budget calls for a total of $381 million for K-12, but Clark said the way it would break down would determined in conference committee action next week.

"The formula increase was about what we were factoring in as a 3-percent increase, but it still leaves us short of our needs," District 88 Superintendent Harold Remme said.

"My concern is that as they take away from the property tax base, will there be a solid base in replacing that with revenue from the sales tax?" he asked.

Another important reform, Clark said, is that school districts' budgets "will need to be structurally balanced into the future." A school district's budget won't be able to exceed its revenue forecast.

Both Clark and Frederickson pointed out that this is how it's done at the state level. "It's a good budgeting principle," Frederickson said.

"I'm very pleased that final negotiations found room in a very limited bonding bill for $50 million for Conservation Resource Enhancement Program that is absolutely crucial to the Minnesota River," Clark said. The bonding bill also includes $10 million for flood relief, and, according to Frederickson, reissuance of $21 million in polluted landfill cleanup bonds.

"We wanted to hold the line on increases in spending and achieve needed tax relief and reform," Clark said. "We went into extra innings, and it appears the people of Minnesota are the winners."

Frederickson who is on both the agriculture and environment conference committees doesn't expect any real problems.

"The difficulty will be to find the funding for other necessary agriculture and environment programs. If you're providing tax relief, then there is less money for a lot of programs. You can't do both."