What to know about Legislature’s Monday special session to finish the budget

The press release all Minnesota Capitol reporters state workers and others have been waiting for arrived Friday afternoon Gov Tim Walz has called a special session of the Legislature for Monday and outlined the agreements that would govern what will be discussed and how This ambitious one-day special session aims to tackle a mountain of work that lawmakers left unfinished when the Legislature ended its regular session on May without completing numerous budget bills that must be passed to avoid a state ruling body shutdown I ve put together various key takeaways from the documents a House leadership press conference Friday afternoon and other reporting What will the Legislature focus on in its special session Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on bills before their May deadline and those will be on the special session agenda After the regular session working groups continued discussing language though in a less-public way for budget bills that still needed passage Speaking to the press Friday afternoon the DFL and Republican leaders of the tied House explained all but three of the bills have already been drafted Lawmakers already passed bills on agriculture and rural broadband housing Legacy Amendment spending inhabitants safety and judiciary state cabinet and elections veterans and military affairs cannabis pensions and human services program Here are the special session bills which won t necessarily come up in this order Modifying MinnesotaCare for Undocumented Adults Bill Medical and Human Services Initiative and Appropriations Bill and Children and Families Commerce and Consumer Protection Program and Appropriations Bill Human Services Appropriations Bill Tuition Procedures and Appropriations Bill Transportation Finance and Strategy Bill Capitol Commitment Bill Taxes and Local Aids Bill Statistics Center Bill Surroundings and Natural Tools ppropriations Bill Jobs Labor Economic Rise Program and Appropriations Bill Higher Coaching Agenda and Finance Bill Capacity Utilities Climate and Setting Strategy and Appropriations Bill Technical Revisor Corrections Bill Will lawmakers really be able to get everything done in one day That s the hope Normal rules that require a bill be given three separate readings on three different days will be suspended as well as any other rules that would prevent passage of the above bills before a m on Tuesday June the agreement signed by the governor and all four caucus leaders reported This suspension of rules requires a two-thirds super-majority in each chamber to implement suggesting that the governor and caucus leaders have secured votes from at least of senators and of representatives If for particular reason the special session was called without enough votes lined up to suspend the rules completing all remaining budget bills in one day will be impossible While the agreement states that lawmakers must complete their work by Tuesday morning that is not binding This will allow the special session to recess and return if needed to finish the work The agreement for the special session also notes that each caucus leadership would not help amendments This does not mean that lawmakers cannot propose amendments but purely that leadership will discourage it and not promotion the amendments If issues remain unsettled through the weekend and lawmakers feel obligated to introduce amendments on Monday it will gum up a process that may already be trying to do too much in too little time What are the chances they don t complete the budget during the special session The stakes are high for both parties because the unfinished budget bills would cause a partial ruling body shutdown come July the start of the next fiscal year It seems that Gov Walz and legislative leaders are confident they can force agreement on the outstanding issues or have already reached agreements behind closed doors House Speaker Lisa Demuth R-Cold Spring explained they have pre-caucused over half of the bills in consideration and will continue to do so through the weekend to assure swift passage on Monday So if leadership is twisting enough arms to get a majority in place before Monday the committee meetings and floor votes may be little more than tightly orchestrated political theater But there likely remain various unsettled issues that have very vocal opponents who could derail or slow down the process What is the majority of controversial issue lawmakers will vote on The best example is the first item listed in the agreement the Modifying MinnesotaCare for Undocumented Adults Bill This piece of the original global budget framework agreed to by the governor House DFL and Republican leadership and Senate DFL leadership is a critical reason that framework was unable to move forward as originally planned Progressive DFL lawmakers led by the House s People of Color and Indigenous POCI caucus made clear they would not advocacy a budget that ended subsidized wellness care for low-income undocumented adults Even this deeply emotional dispute may end up just a particularly raucous scene in Monday s one-day show if the show s producers have their way This is because now the change to MinnesotaCare has been pulled out into its own bill This allows progressives to vote against it Republicans to vote for it and moderate DFLers to take either position as they see fit Demuth stated Friday that Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy DFL-St Paul and Minority Leader Mark Johnson R-East Grand Forks have agreed that Republicans will provide the overwhelming majority of the votes for the bill If all Republicans vote for the measure only one member of the DFL caucus would have to join them in each chamber On the House side Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman DFL-Brooklyn Park declared if she needed to cast the lone DFL vote she would do so In another sign of the behind-the-scenes wrangling that took place before the special session s announcement Demuth revealed there would be a contingency in the broader Department of Wellness bill that would require the passage and enactment of the bill ending access to MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults or else the medical budget bill will fall apart That s intended to ensure Republicans get the concession they negotiated last month with Walz and DFL leadership regardless of how the MinnesotaCare issue is packaged House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman DFL-Brooklyn Park speaks to reporters on Friday June at the Capitol following the announcement of a special session to finish the state budget House Speaker Lisa Demuth R-Cold Spring is at right Credit MinnPost photo by Shadi Bushra Did Minnesota lawmakers reach an agreement on the tax bill and increase the state cannabis tax Yes This was another contentious issue and there was speculation that lawmakers would punt on the measure after several attempts at compromise failed to gain traction Passing a tax bill is not necessary to fund the leadership but it helps clarify what revenue the state can count on in coming years Demuth mentioned its size and scope lie somewhere between the skinny tax bill that was briefly floated as an option and the tax committee s original full bill It will include the previously released increase in the state cannabis tax to from The other contentious issue in the tax bill how to tax content centers will get its own bill following a heated debate in the tax committee There was a very strong push by the Senate DFL House GOP and the governor to achieve specific movement on content centers Hortman revealed We absolutely relented the House DFL when it became apparent that this was how we would get both the bonding bill and a complete budget agreement passed Did you say legislative leaders agreed on a bonding bill Yes The capital resources bill will fund million in projects with roughly million earmarked for roads wastewater and other infrastructure Because it is funded through state general obligation bonds it is known as the bonding bill But because it requires a majority to pass in both the House and Senate it wasn t clear if lawmakers could muster the votes If the special session goes as planned does it mean the state budget is complete for the next two years Likely not There may well be another maybe an even more special session later this year once Congress passes the federal budget in the fall assuming they stick to their Sept deadline At that point state lawmakers throughout the country will have to see how possible federal cuts will affect their states and make any necessary changes to their budgets The post What to know about Legislature s Monday special session to finish the budget appeared first on MinnPost