The Minnesota Department of Management and Budget, otherwise abbreviated as MMB, is a cabinet-level state agency responsible for coordinating the financial management and personnel administration processes of state government.
Role and functions
Financial management
MMB serves as the comptroller and treasurer for the whole of state government, coordinating accounting, cash management, and debt management across all state agencies. MMB maintains and operates the statewide financial reporting system called SWIFT and uses this financial data, along with economic trends from the state economist, to prepare operating and capital budgets for the state. MMB also issues reports on Minnesota's economic health that are frequently cited by the media.
Personnel administration
MMB works in concert with other state agencies to provide coordinated human resources management to all three branches of state government. In particular, it negotiates with bargaining units and maintains the civil service classification system.
MMB also provides human resources training and leadership development to other state agencies, administers employee insurance plans and payroll, and enforces federal and state laws applicable to the state government's workforce.
History
The first iteration of MMB was the Budget Bureau, a division of the
Department of Administration created in 1939 to assist the
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
in the preparation of the executive budget. Later in 1971, the Loaned Executive Action Program (LEAP) convened by the late
Wendell Anderson
Wendell Richard "Wendy" Anderson (February 1, 1933 – July 17, 2016) was an American hockey player, politician, and the 33rd governor of Minnesota, serving from January 4, 1971, to December 29, 1976. In late 1976 he resigned as governor in ord ...
, Minnesota's 33rd governor, recommended consolidating the state's accounting and budgeting functions into a single agency under the governor's supervision in order to provide comprehensive budgetary control and financial reporting oversight of all state spending. A 1973 state government reorganization saw LEAP's recommendations put into action, with the former accounting functions of the elected
state auditor
State auditors (also known as state comptrollers, state controllers, state examiners, or inspectors general) are fiscal officers lodged in the executive or legislative branches of U.S. state governments who serve as external auditors, financi ...
transferred to the Budget Bureau - which in turn became the Department of Finance. At the same time, the Department of the Public Examiner was abolished and its powers and duties in relation to the supervision and auditing of local government finances were transferred to the Office of the State Auditor.
The Department of Finance's responsibilities expanded further following the abolition of the
state treasurer's office in 2003 by constitutional amendment. Throughout Minnesota's history as a U.S. territory and state, the elected state treasurer had always been responsible for managing and accounting for the state's cash flows, coordinating banking services for state agencies, and issuing and servicing the state debt. With the repeal of the Office of the State Treasurer however, those responsibilities were transferred to the Department of Finance.
The most recent change to MMB came in 2008, with the repeal of the Department of Employee Relations (DER) which had previously administered the state government's workforce. DER's staff and responsibilities - together with the Management Analysis Division at DOA - were merged with the Department of Finance, which was then renamed the Department of Management and Budget.
Notes
External links
Minnesota Management and Budget
{{authority control
State agencies of Minnesota