Paper Trail: Fiscal note tussle continues with Zellers letter

Peter Bartz-Gallagher//April 20, 2011

Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton Tuesday afternoon to reiterate the House’s position in the continuing disagreement on the role of fiscal notes in the budget process. Zellers stated plainly his caucus’ belief that fiscal notes do not in all cases “accurately reflect the underlying legislation.”

He referred specifically to the House’s State Government budget bill, for which fiscal estimates came from “information from other states, executive branch agencies, and private sector experts.” DFLers have raised concerns throughout the budget process, some of which have been echoed by the Dayton administration, that Republicans book greater savings from their proposed state government reform initiatives than the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget estimates.

Read the whole letter here. [pdf]