Most of MN budget unfinished as Legislature reaches final hours of session

With just hours remaining in the regular legislative session on Monday Minnesota lawmakers still hadn t granted final passage to major pieces of the upcoming two-year state budget including bills on taxes tuition and fitness care spending A special session will be required to enact last week s billion or so budget framework agreement reached by Gov Tim Walz the Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority Senate and DFL and Republican leadership the - tied House As of Monday afternoon only a handful of the or so bills that comprise the budget had made it through both the Senate and House and were headed to Walz s desk to be signed into law Around two-thirds of the general fund budget human healthcare and human services and K- instruction remain up in the air and there are still unresolved questions about assistance for the budget deal Walz narrated reporters Monday afternoon that he wasn t worried about getting the budget done before the June deadline and that the biggest pieces often come last He added he d call lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session when the work s done on final bills and that he hopes it will only be for one day Gov Tim Walz If the Legislature doesn t pass a budget by the end of the two-year fiscal period the state establishment will shut down Layoff notices start going out to state workers on June If there is no deal by then Lawmakers and the governor stated they hope to wrap up the budget before the end of May What s the holdup Despite leaders calling it a deal it s only an agreement between top lawmakers and the governor and several of it is still up for intense debate Walz Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth signed off but one part has put off multiple DFLers a proposal to end state-funded MinnesotaCare insurance coverage for adults in the U S illegally That was a GOP priority in negotiations and DFL leaders say they agreed to it because they needed to avert a authorities shutdown on July which would interrupt a important range of services in the state The last time that happened was A great number of DFLers say they won t patronage the proposal It isn t just the party s progressive wing either self-described moderate DFL Sen Judy Seeberger of Afton on Saturday explained she opposed the change DFLers have also accused Republicans of trying to make late changes to the deal like creating more rollbacks for the state paid family and diagnostic leave project and a paid sick time requirement the DFL-controlled executive created in Republicans keep moving the goalposts None of the GOP demands are necessary to pass the state budget bill reported House Floor Leader Jaime Long DFL-Minneapolis Demuth blamed the late budget bills on a weekslong House DFL boycott at the beginning of session that delayed business as the tied chamber s power struggle worked its way through court As I ve talked about from the very start I assumed that we could have gotten this done on time she commented Our Democrat colleagues didn t show up for work and we ended up doing that days in a row Special sessions become the norm for passing a budget under divided governing body The last time a divided leadership passed a budget without going into overtime was What has passed As of p m Monday lawmakers had passed a number of smaller pieces of the budget One big part of the budget deal that got chosen pushback was the closure of the aging state prison in Stillwater though the House and Senate approved that change in a judiciary and population safety budget bill over the weekend Besides that bills on agriculture veterans affairs housing and Legacy Amendment funds for outdoors parks and the arts are also on the way to Walz Changes to society employee pensions headed to becoming law as part of a bill passed by the Senate Monday will help insulate state State Patrol and other state citizens safety pensions against inflation with cost-of-living adjustments What remains The greater part of what makes up the budget hasn t made it to the finish line A vitality bill that carries the deal cut MinnesotaCare benefits for adults in the U S illegally has not made it to a vote in either chamber A tax bill has not yet materialized though as part of the budget deal the state plans to raise the tax on beverages infused with THC the psychoactive part of cannabis Republicans got DFLers to agree to cut the maximum rate for a payroll tax for the new paid family and therapeutic leave project from to Walz s proposed reduction of the overall state sales tax rate and the creation of a new tax on services like accounting and legal advice did not make it to the final deal Nor did a Senate DFL proposed first-in-the-nation tax on social media platforms for user figures collection A pre-K- development budget bill that holds state spending level to inflation for the next two years still hasn t made it through A GOP push to eliminate unemployment insurance for hourly school workers is also headed for the dustbin as a end of the budget deal DFLers disclosed The development budget makes up around one-third of the current billion two-year state budget As the midnight deadline to pass bills approached Monday higher teaching transportation and human services also remained unfinished Related Articles Former state legislator Melisa L pez Franzen ends campaign for U S Senate MN Legislature sends Stillwater prison closure to governor key budget pieces remain Letters More politicians should follow Walz s lead on money for religious institutions MN House passes guidance budget after unemployment debate delays Unions oppose plan to close the aging Stillwater state prison