House Majority Leader Erin Murphy said the budget plan would "build on our historic investments in education.

The package carried by committee chair Ann Lenczewski includes a move to full federal income tax conformity.

With big piles of money and high stakes, candidates for governor, Congress and the U.S. Senate have so far absorbed most of the attention when it comes to fundraising. But they aren’t the only politicos who turned in fundraising disclosures in January after clamoring for donations in 2013.

When DFL State Rep. John Benson announced in December that he would not seek a fifth term representing District 44B — a suburban legislative tract comprising northern Minnetonka, southern Plymouth and Woodland — two young men who’d been itching to run for office got their chance.

MNsure board chair Brian Beutner told reporters that he was sad to see Todd-Malmlov leave.

There was little fanfare when not one but two racino bills surfaced in the Minnesota Legislature last week. The perennial proposal to install slot machines in racetracks usually enters into the political milieu with news conferences and headlines.

David Lloyd, owner of a financial advisory practice, has registered to challenge DFL Rep. John Benson in House District 43B, a seat the benson won with about 51.5 percent of the vote in 2010.

In the wealthy swing districts of Minneapolis’ western suburbs, the gay marriage amendment that will appear on the 2012 ballot lands outside voters’ chief concerns of taxes, education and the overall health of the economy.

Endorsed candidates in three Minnesota legislative districts missed the deadline this week to file to run for the Legislature.

Nine more Minnesotans have registered with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board to run for seats in the state Legislature this fall.