Housing conference committee reviews competing House and Senate funding targets and major appropriations

The Minnesota Legislature’s conference committee on the housing finance omnibus met to compare the House and Senate positions on funding and policy for affordable housing programs, with nonpartisan fiscal staff from both bodies walking members through a spreadsheet of line‑by‑line differences.

Senate fiscal staff Eric Olafson told the committee that “the senate position… was a net additional spend of 3,000,000 from the general fund” for the fiscal 2026–27 period and an additional $1,000,000 for fiscal 2028–29, numbers he said meet the Senate’s budget targets. House fiscal analyst Katrina Highmark summarized the House position as substantially larger, saying the House’s change items total about $75,450,000 for fiscal 2026–27 and $7,600,000 for fiscal 2028–29, meeting the House target of roughly $75 million in the 2026–27 biennium.

Why it matters: the two positions contain many identical policy provisions but differ primarily on spending levels, one‑time…