Still without budget deal, Minnesota Legislature likely headed for first special session since 2021

Legislators in St. Paul will likely have to work overtime to pass a state budget.

A special session is looking almost inevitable for the Minnesota Legislature with no budget deal and only days left before its May 19 adjournment deadline. Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders continued to negotiate behind closed doors Tuesday, but there was no indication that a deal was imminent.

Asked Wednesday morning if a special session is inevitable, House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman said yes. Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, also conceded that a special session is “very, very likely, if not inevitable.”

Walz told reporters Tuesday this legislative session is starting to mirror 2019, when leaders struck a budget agreement at the last minute and lawmakers had to come back for a short special session to pass bills.

“We’re probably getting pretty close to that,” Walz said.

Without a spending agreement, the tied House and DFL-controlled Senate cannot reconcile key differences and merge their respective budget bills. Legislative committee work has slowed down in the absence of a deal.

Lawmakers must pass a new two-year budget before July 1 to avoid a government shutdown. Walz and legislators are trying to pass a budget that heads off a possible multibillion-dollar deficit in the future.

The state’s next two-year budget is expected to total about $66 billion.

The governor said a possible special session would be “perfunctory” if legislators reach a deal before their May 19 deadline to adjourn. He said he wants to give the revisor’s office, which is charged with drafting bills, enough time after an agreement is struck, rather than rushing and risking drafting errors.

“I still think there’s a chance we can get this thing [done] by the time, but I think as the hours go by, it becomes a little more difficult,” Walz said.

Earlier this week, Murphy said the revisor’s office told legislative leaders they’ve reached the point “where it’s going to be really hard to put everything together” for an on-time finish.

Murphy said she doesn’t want to force legislators and staff to work unreasonable hours just to finish on time, either.

“What I don’t want to do is say to Minnesotans, ‘We’re going to push through and get this done,’ and make the people who work here and the members who serve here do something that is really impossible,” she said.

Minnesota lawmakers haven’t needed a special session to get their work done since 2021, when they took extra time to pass a state budget and address the governor’s extension of a COVID-19 peacetime emergency declaration.

But before the COVID-19 pandemic, special sessions were pretty much the norm. Lawmakers needed special sessions in 2019, 2017, 2015 and 2011 to pass budget bills.

Several sticking points remain in budget negotiations, from whether to raise taxes or fees to tweaking programs passed by Democrats in 2023. GOP legislators want to repeal new programs providing summer unemployment insurance to hourly school workers and health care to undocumented immigrants, citing cost concerns, while Democrats are seeking to preserve the initiatives.

Republicans and some Democrats are also pushing changes that would exempt certain small businesses from the state’s new paid family and medical leave and sick and safe time laws.

A bonding bill to fund infrastructure projects is still on the table, though the House and Senate haven’t agreed on how much to borrow.

Hortman said Monday that capital investment committee leaders are mapping out bonding bill scenarios so they can move quickly when a deal is in hand.

“I think there’s a lot of interest in doing a bonding bill this year,” said Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park.

As the budget impasse has dragged on, some House Republicans have grown frustrated and taken to social media to blame their Democratic colleagues.

State Rep. Elliott Engen, R-White Bear Township, accused Democrats of holding up the budget “unless we fund free healthcare for illegal immigrants.”

“MN Republicans came here expecting reasonable solutions,” Engen posted on X. “Democrats showed up a month late, taking full pay, and now put our state at risk of a shutdown over insane policy.”

Republicans have started to blame House Democrats for a possible late finish because they boycotted the first few weeks of the session.

Inside the negotiating room, discussions have remained cordial, however.

Walz praised legislative leaders for negotiating in good faith and maintaining a “respectful” tone, even as their caucuses pressure them to hold firm on certain issues. While the Legislature’s budget timeline remains unclear, Walz said the final product is what matters most.

“The proof’s in the pudding,” Walz said Tuesday. “The results are what are really going to matter.”

Staff writer Nathaniel Minor contributed to this story.