By Jacque Clinton
Normandale Community College

The state’s legislative session started February 4. That means Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) and the University of Minnesota systems will once again be fighting for funding, after steadily losing funding over the past decade.

Let me start with a brief explanation for those of you who are new to the system. The MnSCU system consists of all public two-year community and technical colleges and the seven state universities. The Minnesota State College Student Association (MSCSA) works on behalf of the two-year students in MnSCU at the legislature. The University of Minnesota system is separate, consisting of its five campuses. Both receive funding from tuition, as well as the state government.

Here is a bit of background on what happened during last year’s legislative session. After the gloomy budget forecasts of this past fall, the 2010-11 MnSCU budget was unallotted (or cut) $50 million by Governor Tim Pawlenty. This did not affect tuition because of a tuition cap that limited increases to 5 percent, bought down to 3 percent by one-time federal stimulus money.
The budget situation is looking equally as tough this year as we head into the legislative session. MnSCU is most likely going to be facing additional cuts–MSCSA’s hope is to minimize these cuts because they often result in higher tuition and program cuts. We realize that the state is in a budget crisis, but we also believe that higher education is one of the ways we can fix the economy. To that end MSCSA is hoping that the tuition cap of 5 percent that the legislature passed last year remains in place.

The Minnesota legislature runs on a two-year or biennial cycle. In normal times the first year is a budgeting year and the second is a bonding year. The 2010 session is a bonding year, which means a lot of proposals for building restoration and new construction on MnSCU campuses. Perhaps not as exciting as a new building, but in many ways more essential is Higher Education Asset Preservation and Repair (HEAPR) money. This is money that can go to fixing a leaky roof, or replacing a faulty heating system. It’s money that’s meant to preserve the buildings we already have, as it’s cheaper to maintain than to rebuild.

The second part of the bonding bill is the actual bonding projects. MnSCU creates a list of prioritized projects the system would like to see built across the state, and asks for money to help fund them. Now that the legislative session has started, the House, Senate and Governor Pawlenty have all released their bonding proposals. The lists are available online:

• MnSCU
• Minnesota House
• Minnesota Senate
• Governor Tim Pawlenty’s proposal

It will be interesting to see how the different proposals play out as the major players jockey for position. The MSCSA state office will follow all the action and be at the Capitol on a daily basis during the session. If you have any questions, call the MSCSA office at 651-297-5877.