Minnesota House Democrats unveil the framework of their state budget plan this afternoon, while Republicans in the Senate plan to roll out their basic proposal by week’s end. Governor Tim Walz scaled back some spending in his revised budget released Friday — but *not* for the U-of-M and state colleges and universities. Each would get about 12 million dollars more than in Walz’s original budget, he says because of “coming to us with hard numbers, real stories — people who work there and students — to make the case and, to be quite honest, we went back and said that they’re right.”
And because of that extra money, should there be a tuition freeze? Walz says, “I certainly hope so.” He adds, “We wanted to see more concern being shown for the cost and for families’ choice to be out there. And it wasn’t a condemnation towards the system: It was a[n] expectation that we need to show Minnesotans what we’re doing to keep tuition down.”