Saturday, May 06, 2000

State Rep. Rob Leighton (DFL-Austin) says agreement by legislative leaders and governor Ventura on a plan to allocate the state’s budget surplus is a sign the 2000 legislative session is ending.

However, Leighton added, many details still need to be worked out.

"It now appears we will have a significant sales tax rebate, car license tab reductions, some form of permanent tax cut, as well as additional funding for education, health care, transportation and natural resources," he said.

"But," he added, "there are still a lot of details to be worked out. I plan to review each major bill carefully to make sure it is fair and right for Greater Minnesota."

The agreement negotiated by Governor Ventura, Democratic Senate leader Roger Moe and Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum covers only part of the surplus.

The $1.8 billion surplus is made up of about $1.3 billion of one-time money and about $525 million of projected future revenue.

The tri-partisan agreement only covers the future money, which is the only part of the surplus available for permanent tax cuts or spending.

Under the agreement announced late last week, each party, House, Senate and Governor, will choose to allocate one-third of the future money, or $175 million apiece.

House Republicans indicated they will use their share for unspecified income tax cuts and the Governor will use his share for license tab reductions. The Senate Democrats will put $125 million into state aid to local school districts, $25 million into health care and $25 million into natural resources.

"Additional resources are particularly important to our area given the cutbacks our school districts have been forced to make," said Leighton. "Education remains my top priority at the Capitol."

Most of the one-time money would go to transportation projects and the sales tax rebate, although the exact amounts remain in question, according to Leighton.

"A lot of questions remain about these plans," he said.

"For example, $175 million for income tax cuts, spread statewide, would work out to about 50 cents a week for people making $20,000 to $30,000 a year.

"We don’t know how the car license cuts would be structured. We don’t know how the funding for education, health care or natural resources will be used," he said. "Those are important questions.

"There’s a lot of work to be done before we can call this session a success. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of time left to do that work," he concluded.