Providing for the financing of higher education and related purposes ARTICLE 1 - APPROPRIATIONSAppropriating money to the higher education services office for state grants, for interstate tuition reciprocity, for state work study, for Minitex and MnLINK, for the learning network, for income contingent loans for certain medical school graduates, for the Minnesota college savings plan (formerly Edvest), for outreach services to historically underserved groups of state elementary and secondary students, for grants to increase campus-community collaboration and service learning statewide and for an increase in the dues for the midwest higher education compact, to the board of trustees of the Minnesota state colleges and universities for instructional and noninstructional expenditures including a grant to Minnesota state university, Mankato for the talented youth mathematics program, to the board of regents of the university Minnesota for instructional and noninstructional expenditures, for primary care education initiatives, for the agricultural experiment station and Minnesota extension service, for the rural physicians associates and talented youth mathematics programs, for the veterinary diagnostic laboratory and biomedical engineering center, for the geological survey, for the natural resources research institute (NRRI), for the center for urban and regional affairs, for the Bell museum of natural history and for the Humphrey exhibit and to the Mayo medical foundation for the medical school and for certain family practice and graduate residency programs; requiring savings in the state grant program resulting from increases in the maximum federal grant or other sources to be used to provide additional decreases in the family responsibility for independent students and to increase funding for work study programs; specifying certain HESO tuition reciprocity agreements negotiation and financial aid expenditures data collection and reporting requirements; requiring MnSCU board direct allocation of appropriations to colleges and universities; designating the northeast higher education district as the fiscal agent for the Arrowhead university center; reducing the base appropriation for MnSCU and delaying the development of college or university doctoral level programs or degrees; requiring and providing for the MnSCU board to implement the Minnesota transfer curriculum; requiring technical and consolidated colleges use of instructional advisory committees; authorizing the board to waive tuition for eligible southwest Asia veterans; requiring the board to distribute certain reserves to campuses through a leveraged equipment purchase program, specifying a participating campuses match requirement; requiring board development of a central office services plan; requiring the university of Minnesota to continue to provide support for the rapid agricultural response fund and sustainable and organic agriculture initiatives and to maintain an experiment station advisory council system; requesting the board of regents to review and analyze the programmatic mission, scope and cost effectiveness of the extension service and report to the governor and the legislature by a certain date; providing for accountability of the state colleges and universities and the university of Minnesota and specifying certain post-secondary planning report requirements; authorizing certain fund transfers and extending the availability of certain appropriations ARTICLE 2 - RELATED PROVISIONSCreating a Minnesota state colleges and universities account in the state enterprise fund, requiring the commissioner of finance to report to the legislature on account activity; providing for additional deposits of tobacco settlement payments to the tobacco settlement fund, requiring transfer of the additional deposits to the academic health center account to be created in the medical education endowment fund to fund academic health center programs and modifying the expiration date of the tobacco settlement fund; expanding appropriations for certain post-secondary educational institution enrollments under state appropriations for instructional expenditures to certain persons from outside the state employed full time in the state; extending the expiration date for the higher education and student advisory councils; reducing the state grant assigned family cost responsibility for independent students, modifying the definition of resident student relating to independent students, clarifying the cost of attendance and modifying grant eligibility; requiring and providing for higher education services office (HESO) grants to encourage students participating in advanced placement (AP) and international baccalaureate (IB) programs to attend a college or university in the state; modifying eligibility for and increasing the maximum child care grant; authorizing and providing for the board of trustees of the Minnesota state colleges and universities to accept gifts to improve or acquire facilities and to convey or lease real property for the benefit of state colleges or universities or students, requiring reports to the legislature of capital projects costing over a certain amount; providing for tuition refunds for certain students entering military service; modifying eligibility and extending the renewal period for public safety officers survivor education benefits; extending the expiration date of the farmer lender mediation program; requiring and providing for the MnSCU chancellor in consultation with the commissioner of children, families and learning and selected school boards to implement a comprehensive demonstration project to increase the number of high school graduates academically prepared to enroll in college level courses; authorizing the MnSCU board to use nonstate funds to remodel the top floor of Lawrence hall at St. Cloud state university for student housing; establishing the commission on university of Minnesota excellence to identify, evaluate and make recommendations on development of centers of excellence achieving a certain national ranking, specifying membership requirements and duties, sunset; repealing certain MnSCU and university of Minnesota planning report requirements, the authority of metropolitan state university to deposit tuition receipts in a suspense account and the requirement for the boards to consider the availability of physical space in planning for new program offerings at particular campuses ARTICLE 3 MINNESOTA COLLEGE SAVINGS PLANChanging the Edvest savings program to the Minnesota college savings plan; defining certain additional terms; classifying certain data; providing for an annual fee and for contributions to plan accounts; specifying the authority of account owners and providing for the designation of beneficiaries; providing for a maximum account balance limit and for the treatment of dormant or inactive accounts; modifying the definition of family income, specifying certain residency requirements and providing for the determination of the age of beneficiaries for matching grant qualification purposes; specifying certain higher education services office (HESO) director matching grant reduction requirements; providing for matching grants for single beneficiaries with multiple accounts; requiring matching grant forfeiture under certain conditions; providing for distributions from the accounts; specifying certain renumbering, cross reference correction and term change instructions to the revisor of statutes (ra)