Committee considers moving compensation council deadline to May 1

Sen. Johnson Stewart brought Senate File 3860 before the Committee on State and Local Government on March 12, 2026, proposing a one-month extension of the Legislative Compensation Council's reporting deadline from April 1 to May 1. The council advises on salaries for constitutional officers and state agency heads and is appointed in January of odd-numbered years.

Dori Leland, enterprise director for workforce at the Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) office, told the committee the bill does not change the council's membership or duties; it only moves the final determination date so members have more time to analyze data and deliberate after appointments. "Our intent with this bill is to move the deadline out one month only," Leland said, adding the change would keep final recommendations within the legislative session while giving the council additional time.

Sen. Bahr pressed whether the proposed May 1 deadline would leave too little time for the Legislature to include any salary changes in the biennial budget and asked whether the shift would force the Legislature to place placeholders in budget forecasts. Bahr warned that delaying the final recommendations could leave only a few weeks before session end to fund salary changes.

Committee discussion focused on timeline trade-offs: staff described that appointments are made in January, but in recent biennia the council did not begin work until March. A government relations director at MMB clarified that moving the deadline does not require the council to submit its report on May 1—rather, it allows the council to use the extra time if needed—but acknowledged the change would truncate the budget window. The committee took no final vote on passage; Senate File 3860 was laid over for possible inclusion.