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| COMMITTEE ON RULES & ADMINISTRATION APPROVES 2012-2013 MINNESOTA SENATE OPERATING BUDGET | ||||||||||||
(St. Paul) – On the opening day of the 2012 Legislative Session, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration approved the Minnesota Senate’s operating budget for Fiscal Year 2012-2013, including significant cost-saving measures to meet the $2.67 million budget target.
“Our budget has been managed prudently since the first day our caucus became the majority party,” said Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem (R-Rochester), who also serves as Chair of the Rules Committee. “We have maintained a significant focus on this budget for several months now and we believe we’re delivering on the citizen’s demands for a smaller, leaner and cost-effective legislative branch.”
Overall, the Minnesota Senate faced a 5 percent reduction in biennial expenses, which is a similar reduction charged to other state agencies. These savings will be realized by full-time and temporary staff adjustments throughout partisan and non-partisan offices, implementing staff furlough days, and a suspension of the Senate’s match to employees deferred compensation plans.
The Senate Republican Majority Caucus made a number of adjustments to the Senate’s budget in January of 2011 that demonstrated their willingness to lead by example. Compared with the previous majority caucus during a four year term, the Senate spent $59,362 less on travel in FY 2011 (an 88.7 percent cost reduction), and employs 12 fewer permanent employees (a 5.8 percent staff reduction). Moreover, compared to the FY 2009 budget year, the Senate spent $116,517 less in total per diem expenses in FY 2011, a 12.9 percent decrease.
“At this time last year, the Senate Majority Caucus made a commitment that we were not going to be the party of the status quo. At a time where businesses, individuals and families are trying to do more with less, we recognize that state government must do the same. These reductions made to the Senate’s budget demonstrate that we can continue to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars within our own budget,” Senjem added.
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Senate Budget – Rules Committee
F.Y. 2012 – 2013
Senate Budget
The Senate’s FY 12-13 base budget was $43,648,000. We took a 5% reduction of $2,182,400 in the budget passed last session. In addition to the reduction, they are fixed cost increases of $489,000 mostly due to insurance cost increases. The result of these two left a shortfall of $2,671,400 for the biennium. They will be in the total proposed reduction.
Sharing in the Budget
All members and staff will be sharing in the budget solution. All Senate staff, partisan and non-partisan, will take up to two furlough days per year. The Senate match to the Deferred Compensation Plan is suspended for FY12-13.
The Majority Caucus will see a reduction in committee staff. The 16 committee pages will be eliminated during the 2012 & 2013 sessions. They will be replaced by four room pages who will assist with the committee hearings in their assigned room. This is a reduction of 12 staff from the Majority Caucus.
As a result of the loss of committee pages, the Majority Caucus will assign non-committee legislative assistants to assist with committee preparation and floor sessions. The Majority Caucus will be asking its LA staff to take on more responsibility and work harder during the busiest time of the session.
The Minority Caucus will be given a budget for their staff. They will be asked to manage their staff under that budget target. The Minority Caucus will be given session only support during the 2013 legislative session. This holds true for whichever caucus is the Minority in 2013.
There will be no paid interns during the 2012-2013 sessions.
New Biennial Base Budgets for each caucus staff support not related to committee functions:
Minority Caucus $2,629,000
Majority Caucus $2,469,000
Majority Caucus Managed the Senate Budget Well:
Per Diem spent in 2011 was $116,517 less than 2009, the previous state-budget year.
