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St. Paul- The Minnesota Senate provided an update on their budget Thursday, including significant improvements due to savings and good fiscal management.
“We’ve managed the state’s budget well – from a $6 billion deficit to a $1.2 billion surplus. Similarly, we’ve managed our own budget well by prioritizing spending and eliminating waste,” said Senator David Senjem, Senate Majority Leader.
The Senate's budget has improved dramatically because of significant decisions of internal management. There is now a $837,000 balance forward resulting from savings this past legislative session. This savings brought upon by good fiscal restraint will allow us to meet the required 5 percent reduction to the Senate's base budget and delay any staffing level changes that would impact current Senate employees.
What are some of the spending reduction measures that have taken place?
• There has been a $159,000 savings against the budget by Senators receiving less per diem
• There has been a $118,000 savings in mileage reimbursement
• New contracts for Senate service (i.e. auditing, technology) have been more competitively bid
• There has been no out of state ( out of Minnesota) travel reimbursements
• There has been a $21,000 savings in travel and housing
At the start of this biennium the new Republican majority reduced the number of FTE's for the majority party (Republicans) by 15 and increased the number of FTE's in the minority Democratic Caucus by 10. This was partly due to the relative sizes of the two caucuses and partly due to the streamlining and efficiencies of the reduced committee structure.
While there will be no layoffs as of June 1, there will be a hiring freeze that will be instituted for the entire Senate.
“The velocity of the savings continues to grow. This is a good example of managing a budget well and bringing savings forward for the taxpayer. Spending restraint has to start with ourselves and we have led the way for all agencies and departments with very thoughtful and prudent decisions,” Senjem concluded.
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