Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher

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 today (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 19 without completing numerous budget bills that must be passed by the end of the month for sure, but hopefully on Monday, to avoid a state government shutdown.

Shadi Bushra of Minnpost.com put together some takeaways from documents, a House leadership press conference Friday afternoon, and other reporting.

Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on 14 bills before their May 19 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 said all but three of the bills have already been drafted.

Lawmakers already passed bills on agriculture and rural broadband, housing, Legacy Amendment spending, public safety and judiciary, state government and elections, veterans and military affairs, cannabis, pensions, and human services policy.

Here are the special session bills, which won’t necessarily come up in this order:

•Modifying MinnesotaCare for Undocumented Adults Bill

•Health and Human Services Policy and Appropriations Bill (and Children and Families)

•Commerce and Consumer Protection Policy and Appropriations Bill

•Human Services Appropriations Bill

•Education Policy and Appropriations Bill

•Transportation Finance and Policy Bill

•Capitol Investment Bill

•Taxes and Local Aids Bill

•Data Center Bill

•Environment and Natural Resources Appropriations Bill

•Jobs, Labor, Economic Development Policy and Appropriations Bill

•Higher Education Policy and Finance Bill

•Energy, Utilities, Environment and Climate Policy and Appropriations Bill

•Technical Revisor Corrections Bill

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 government shutdown come July 1, 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, said they have pre-caucused “over half” of the 14 bills in consideration and planned to continue through the weekend to assure swift passage on Monday. So if leadership twisted enough arms to get a majority in place before today, the committee meetings and floor votes may be little more than tightly orchestrated political theater.

But some unsettled issues may remain that have very vocal opponents who could derail or slow down the process.

We’ll have to see what the day (and night) brings at the Capitol.