On May 19, the 2025 legislative session came to an end. Our top task for the year is setting a new budget for the next two-year cycle. Though an agreement was eventually reached between legislative leaders and Governor Walz on a budget framework, not all the individual funding bills that create the state’s overall budget have met the approval deadline for the legislature.
I’m sure you recall that my House Democrat colleagues chose not to show up for work until 23 days after session began, collecting full pay while the rest of us got to work. That political game sadly set us on a path that left us with not enough time to finish. Now Minnesotans are paying the price.
Politics aside, the major highlight of the budget framework is that the final total represents the largest cut to government spending in state history. It would wipe out nearly half of the projected budget deficit Democrats created when they grew government by 40% and raised taxes by $10 billion two years ago, and no Minnesota family will see a tax increase in this budget. This reduction is not enough in my mind, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Both the House and Senate spent last weekend approving compromise agreements for several budget areas. Among the conference committee reports passed were those providing funding to veterans’ programs, agriculture, housing, public safety, and Legacy Amendment programs.
A number of other finance bills were close to completion, but did not receive an official sign off before session ended. The finance bills that remain outstanding include commerce, education, energy, environment and natural resources, health, higher education, human services, labor and workforce development, and transportation.
Unfortunately, now the legislation basically starts over. A bill introduced and altered in the regular session does not automatically carry over to a special session. So instead of having joint House/Senate conference committees meeting in public, you will have “working groups” hashing over proposals behind the scenes. And if those working groups don’t finish their work quickly, the proposals often get taken out of their hands and escalated to the “tribunal” (House Speaker, Senate majority leader, and governor, and sometimes House and Senate minority leaders) who then take over the negotiations and eventually strike a deal.
This process is just plain wrong. It’s not fair to the public that deserves transparency. Not only does it make the governor a much bigger player in the crafting of budget legislation, which is not the job of the executive branch (if he doesn’t agree with a bill, he can refuse to call a special session to pass it), but transparency is basically thrown out the window. Fewer people making major decisions is never a good thing, especially when tens of billions of dollars are at stake.
My hope is that negotiators will find agreement on the remaining budget bills in the coming days, and that the governor will call a very limited special session shortly thereafter. I am also hoping to see a lot more “fixing” take place to address very real issues (like education, where the majority of kids can’t read proficiently) that are in crisis. Once this work has been completed, I will be sure to update you on some of the highlights of these proposals.