The Albert Lea Tribune posts a letter from  Senator Sparks…

The major pieces of the new budget are a 2% increase on the basic funding formula for education, in addition to allocating money for special education and early childhood education. We have also increased the amount of funding for the Border-to-Border Broadband program from $30 million to $40 million. The budget agreement also now includes $52 million in aid to cities and counties through local government aid (LGA) and county program aid (CPA), which will help stabilize property taxes.