GOP, Dayton struggle building a higher ed budget to meet many demands

The first higher education spending package was doomed to die on the governor's desk.

The Republican-controlled Senate and the House passed the nearly $3.2 billion higher education finance bill on Monday with about $125 million in new spending, far less than the state's two large university systems wanted. Like other GOP-driven budget bills this year, it got a quick veto from Gov. Mark Dayton, who wants $200 million more.

For those who've been through it, it's a familiar dance in a divided government. Negotiations have resumed on the higher education budget and, as always, controlling tuition will be a priority for lawmakers. Some, though, worry that in the effort to keep tuition in check, there won't be enough left for other pressing needs and competing demands in the state's university systems.

Lawmakers start by building a base fund that includes the University of Minnesota campuses, the Minnesota State system, the state's higher education office and the Mayo Foundation. That base is about $3 billion. What gets negotiated is the additional funding that the school systems ask for, which includes money to keep up with rising costs, new programs and building renovation.

The bill that passed Monday will allow Minnesota State to freeze tuition. However, the University of Minnesota system would get far less than it asked in the bill.

"If state support is going down, tuition is either going to have to go up, or we're going to have to cut programs or services," said Matt Kramer, vice president for government relations at the University of Minnesota. "Neither of those are good for our students."

The U's role as a research institution helps with rural agricultural issues across the state and helps to address many other things, like steps forward in medicine, he added.

For the 2018-2019 budget, Minnesota State asked for about $178 million in additional funding and the U system asked for around $147 million.

But Republicans leaned toward the Minnesota State system, which has more campuses and students throughout the state and offers a variety of degrees from two-year vocational to doctorates.

"People believe that we ought to treat the two systems pretty much evenly. If we had done that, neither one would've been happy. So, we chose to go with Minnesota State for the share of the funding," said Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, who chairs the Higher Education and Career Readiness Policy and Finance Committee.

"I love Mankato" and the system's other regional universities, said Faical Rayani, Minnesota State University Mankato senior and chair-elect of the group Students United. "I'm very concerned that these schools won't be able to operate as well as they used to without the funding that they need."

Education is a key reason Minnesota is consistently ranked highly for quality of life, as a place raise children and in voter turnout and civic activism, said state Sen. Jason Isaacson, DFL-Shoreview, who serves on the Senate Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee.

"If we continue to disinvest in education, we're creating higher student debt for those who can go," he said. "We reduce access to a lot of people who can't go. And then what really happens is we're going to have a brain drain."

Republican leaders and Dayton will try next to come up with an overall budget figure for higher education, which could include specific policies or tuition targets.

Nornes said he expects the U will get more funding out of the negotiations, but he worries about steadily increasing budgets.

"I'm cautious that we have to be mindful that we can't keep this pace probably going forever," he said. "So, we need to limit what we do as far as our budget is concerned, to make sure it's sustainable."

Minnesota State Chancellor Steven Rosenstone said he's seen this back and forth before.

"It's that time of the legislative season where things seem a little goofy," he said. "But I'm quite confident that we're going to find a path forward and I know that people are working very hard on both sides of the aisle for that to happen."