Waiting for Budget Framework

Minnesota House and Senate conference committee meetings are underway, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. “The conference committee can’t dig too much in until there is a broader budget agreement on the framework for the overall state budget,” says Minnesota Corn Growers Association Public Policy Director Amanda Bilek. “That needs to be agreed to by the governor and then the caucus leaders from the House and the Senate. Until they get an overall spending agreement, they can’t start reconciling the differences in spending between the House and the Senate versions.” Bilek admits that the gap is pretty wide. “The House bill did about $17 million in new funding for the Department of Agriculture, or across the agriculture jurisdiction, and the Senate had a negative or a cut target of about $300,000.”