MARSHALL — So far, there have been a couple of surprises leading up to the next session of the Minnesota Legislature, Sen. Gary Dahms said. One was the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party gaining the majority in the state Senate. Another was Tuesday’s projection of a $17.6 billion budget surplus in Minnesota.

“That will make the dynamics much different because there’s a lot of money to spend,” Dahms said at a visit to Southwest Minnesota State University on Wednesday. “There are certainly two different contrasts. The Republicans are, we need to look at some tax reform. The DFL are looking at ways they want to build programs and things like this,” he said.

Even with those two unexpected factors, Dahms said tackling projects left undone last session — like passing a bonding bill — would likely be on state lawmakers’ list of priorities.

Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, held a Q&A session with SMSU students and faculty on Wednesday.

The projected budget surplus, and differing thoughts on what to do with it, would have an impact on the session, Dahms said.

“No matter how this turns out, what we have to keep in mind is the spending we do today has a major impact in the future,” he said. Starting new government programs, as opposed to one-time spending, would have a long-term budget impact. “That’s where we’re going to have to be very cautious, because if we take a look at $17.6 billion, that is 33% of what our budget is. The budget for this biennium, finishing June 30, was $52 billion.”

Dahms said he thought there would be areas where legislators could get a lot of work done.

“Education is certainly one of those areas,” he said. “There is some differences of opinion on how we’re going to go forward with education. But at the end of the day, there will certainly be areas that we can agree on, that will move education forward.”

Audience members asked how likely it would be for the Minnesota State system of colleges and universities to receive the $350 million funding increase it is requesting for the next biennium. Dahms said legislators would first want to know more details of the request, and whether it would involve one-time funding or more continuous funding.

“These requests are usually more than what’s going to happen,” he said. However, the budget surplus could also have an impact on the request.

Dahms said legislators will also want to address a bonding bill in the upcoming session, after a bonding bill was not passed last spring. But that’s another area of legislation that could be affected by the surplus and different ideas on how to spend it, he said. It’s possible that some projects could be funded, but not through bonding.

“A bonding bill takes a supermajority. Spending cash takes a simple majority. So which is easier to spend?” Dahms said. “I think we’ll have a bonding bill. But what I think is really going to happen is, I think a lot of the bonding projects are going to be substituted from a bonding bill to a cash bill.”

“The DFL right now, they’ve got the governor’s office, the House, the Senate – if they all agree, they can spend all the cash they want. There’s no backstop. Will they do that? I don’t know,” he added.

Dahms said the question of whether a project is funded from bonding or cash would likely have more impact on legislators than on the public.

“If you’re in the majority, you take a risk by saying, ‘You know what, we don’t need you. We’re going to do it this way,'” he said. “When they do that, it makes it tougher when you get down the road, because you will need some votes to make this all come together and have a package at the end of the year.”

“In order to get this done, there’s going to have to be compromise in how much money is going to be spent, and how much money is going to be put away for a rainy day, or whatever,” Dahms added. “That’s the first thing I think is going to have to be resolved.”