The Minnesota Legislature approved the remaining pieces of the next state budget overnight Tuesday during a special session that lasted less than a day, after lawmakers failed to complete their work in May.
They began their work Monday at 10 a.m., with the House adjourning around 10:40 p.m., and the Senate adjourning at about 2 a.m. Tuesday.
They had 14 bills on their to-do list; most were spending plans that made up the roughly $66 billion budget for the next two years.
The political make-up of the Capitol is unique, with a tied House for only the second time in state history, and is as closely divided as a Legislature can be in Minnesota, with 100 Republicans and 101 Democrats. That made negotiations challenging and forced compromise.
“And I think in the end, fighting for that equal shared power made this a better session,” said former DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park. “And I think the way that today unfolded was about cooperation and collaboration, we could have had that from the word go. I’m really happy that we did finally get there.”
A delayed start in the House, after DFL lawmakers boycotted the first few weeks over a power dispute, ended in overtime. But a divided Legislature is not unique in Minnesota. Four of the last five budget-writing sessions, including this one, have ended with special sessions because they didn’t finish the budget on time when Republicans and Democrats shared power.
“We needed to make Minnesota an affordable place that people could afford their lives. We wanted to reduce mandates. Did we get everything done that we wanted to? No, we didn’t, but we made a lot of great strides,” said House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.
Finishing their work prevented nearly 30,000 state workers from getting layoff notices on Tuesday in advance of a partial government shutdown on July 1 if they failed to approve a budget.
The Senate passed a tax bill overnight and a bonding proposal funding infrastructure projects before they adjourned, but had approved the budget bills. The legislation made significant cuts to stave off a projected $6 billion deficit in future years.
Adult undocumented immigrants to lose MinnesotaCare
Most of the day was smooth sailing after lawmakers in the House began by passing the most contentious bill of the year that will remove undocumented immigrant adults from MinnesotaCare, a state health care coverage program, by the year’s end.
The debate in that chamber lasted for four hours and at times was emotional. The change was a top priority for Republicans who are concerned that growing enrollment would balloon costs in an unsustainable way.
“We knew that was going to be a really hard issue,” Demuth said. “Republicans, being in a tie, were able to accomplish much more, not as much as we wanted, but much more in making Minnesota affordable. We are not uncaring. We are looking out for the best interest of Minnesotans and being responsible with taxpayer dollars.”
Democrats in both chambers were deeply opposed to the measure, which will preserve coverage for children despite the rollback for adults.
Through tears, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said approving it, which she agreed to in a larger budget compromise among legislative leaders, was among the most “painful” votes she ever had to take.
She and three other Democrats supported it in the Senate. Hortman was the sole DFL vote alongside Republicans in the House.
Hortman was similarly emotional when reflecting on that moment.
“I’ll continue to have health insurance, so I’m fine. What I worry about is the people who will lose their health insurance,” Hortman said. “I know that people will be hurt by that vote, and I’m we worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn’t include that provision, and we tried any other way we could to come to a budget agreement with Republicans, and they wouldn’t have it. So, you know, I did what leaders do, I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota.”
The measure is on its way to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk, and he is expected to sign it. There is a provision in another proposal that will withhold funding for the Minnesota Department of Health if he doesn’t.
Lawmakers won’t be back for the 2026 session until February, but leaders concede they may have to return for another special session if there are steep Medicaid cuts at the federal level.
0 Comments