ST. PAUL -- Insuring all children is Minnesota House Democrats' top priority this year, followed by making all-day, every-day kindergarten available statewide.
No. 3 is reducing property tax, Democrats announced Monday.
House Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party leaders, like their Senate colleagues, did not provide details about their plans, but said they would cost less than the state's nearly $2.2 billion budget surplus.
Beyond the top three priorities, House Democrats also want:
- More money for early childhood education.
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- A 3 percent increase in public education funding each of the next two years.
- To require 25 percent of electricity in the state to come from renewable sources by 2020.
- A provision to allow government to operate even if lawmakers cannot agree on a budget.
- To make sure state income tax laws match federal laws, saving taxpayers $20 million, a provision that will be considered b the full House on Thursday.
However, Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, said Democrats have yet to put a price tag on each priority.
For instance, Democrats said, providing better health insurance for children would curtail more expensive emergency room visits.
The first House bill would allow many of the 68,000 of Minnesota's uninsured children to get insurance. Many families cannot afford insurance, but Kimball said the state also needs to make applications for children's insurance easier.
Applications have ballooned from about eight pages to nearly 30, Kimball said.
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The all-day, every-day kindergarten proposal would give each district the option to institute the plan. It also allows parents to decide whether to send their children.
On property taxes, the House proposal would increase aid to cities, counties and schools, and give breaks to the elderly. It also would increase property tax refunds.
House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, criticized many of the proposals - but expressed openness for a key DFL provision. He said the DFL property tax relief proposal is "off to a start that we have to respect."
The biggest difference from House and Senate Democratic plans is that many proposals coming from the Senate include tax increases, while the House proposals don't.
Senate DFL'ers, who will release more of their health plans later this week, call for a more in-depth health-care overhaul, reaching far beyond the cover-all-kids plan from the House.
Pawlenty agrees on many of the major topics to be discussed, but won't release details until he unveils his budget on Jan. 22.
-- Forum Communications reporter Mike Longaecker contributed to this article.
