House leaders release committee budget targets

— UPDATED March 31 at 11:43 a.m.

With all session committee deadlines less than two weeks away, House leaders announced an agreement Saturday on committee finance targets while crafting a spending plan for the 2026-27 biennium.

The agreement calls for an almost $1.16 billion reduction in General Fund spending, including $300 million in human services and $50 million in both health and workforce.

“Working in a bipartisan fashion, Democrats and Republicans in the Minnesota House were able to agree on a budget framework that responsibly slows expenditures in areas that are growing faster than the rate of inflation. This is a responsible approach that ensures budget stability now and into the future, helping to avoid dramatic cuts to essential services down the road,” Rep. Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids) said in a statement. He and Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) co-chair the House Ways and Means Committee.

In a statement, House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) said: "House Republicans are holding strong on fiscal responsibility, securing budget targets that would represent the largest spending cut in state history and taking a major step towards fixing the Democrat deficit. I look forward to our chairs working to put together a common-sense budget that makes life more affordable for Minnesotans.”

[MORE: Senate budget targets, governor’s budget recommendations]

Budget targets provide House and Senate committees with a key piece as they put together their respective budget bills for the biennium that begins July 1, 2025. Differences between the bodies over how the appropriations are to be spent can then be worked out in conference committees.

The February 2025 Budget and Economic Forecast shows a predicted $456 million state surplus for the 2026-27 fiscal biennium, but a projected shortfall of nearly $6 billion in the 2028-29 biennium.

As a reminder, here are the three deadlines for this year (first and second deadlines are the same day):

• Friday, April 4 at 5 p.m.  — Committees must act favorably on bills in the house of origin and committees must act favorably on bills, or companions of bills, that met the first deadline in the other body.
• Friday, April 11 at noon — Committees must act favorably on major appropriation and finance bills.

The annual Easter/Passover break is scheduled to begin April 11 at noon. The Legislature will be in recess until April 21 at noon.

Per Joint Rule 2.03, “The deadlines do not apply to the House committees on Capital Investment, Ways and Means, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Legislative Administration, nor to the Senate committees on Capital Investment, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Administration.”