Minnesota Senate Introduces Potential Spending Initiatives

March 31, 2022

On March 28, the Minnesota Senate announced a $1.32 billion budget priority aimed at improving care facilities in Minnesota.  

The proposal is intended to help address staffing challenges faced by facilities and agencies that employ personal care assistants and other direct support professionals. It would allocate $1 billion to raise the wages of workers at home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and intermediate care facilities. The proposal also contains more than $300 million to recruit additional workers in these facilities.  

Most years at this time in the session, legislative leaders set “budget targets” for each area of the state’s budget. This year, however, the Senate has set a “budget priority” for this area. As opposed to budget targets, the budget priority is variable as opposed to a hard-set target. The initiative was announced by Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) and Sen. Karin Housley (R-Stillwater) and will be heard in the Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee on April 5. 

The Senate also introduced its Health and Human Services omnibus bill. The bill, SF 4198 (Sen. Paul Utke-R, Park Rapids) includes language to establish interstate license compacts for nurses, audiologists and speech language pathologists. It also includes language protection for prescribers who prescribe controlled substances for the treatment of intractable pain, which the MMA has supported. 

The bill also includes language authorizing pharmacists to perform certain lab tests and authorizes pharmacy technician and pharmacist interns to administer vaccines. The MMA has worked with stakeholders to include mutually agreeable language. 

SF 4198 was referred to the Senate Finance Committee.