Timing of special session still fuzzy as Walz, legislative leaders continue budget talks

Will a one-day special Minnesota legislative session happen on Saturday?

Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL- Brooklyn Park) speculated it could happen while House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) declined to name a date, instead saying a special session will happen soon.

“No date has been set, but I’m very optimistic that it could happen at any point in time when the governor’s ready to call that,” Demuth said.

Hortman and Demuth, along with Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul), headed into a meeting with Gov. Tim Walz Wednesday as legislators have been working to finish budget bills since the regular session ended May 19.

“I’m confident we’ll get this done. It’s our responsibility to do that,” Walz said.

Demuth said it’s important to recognize that bipartisan discussions haven’t broken down.

“We are still working and that’s a good thing. … A little bit more to do, still working with our chairs and in both bodies,” Demuth said.

Murphy said progress is being made toward a special session, but called the process “slow as molasses, but molasses is good.”

Legislative leaders were beginning the discussion on the logistics of a special session Wednesday and the language of a few bills was still being worked on, Hortman said. They don’t usually discuss the logistics until all the bills are in their final form, she added.

“I know people are getting frustrated. They’re like, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’” Hortman said.

If a state budget isn’t passed by June 30, a partial government shutdown will begin July 1. Some state employees received layoff notices June 1 and Walz said 28,000 layoff notices will go out in the next round June 9. Hortman said they are “urgently” trying to finish by then. Walz said he hopes the special session will last one day to wrap up the budget.

“It’s my desire that this thing be buttoned up so I don’t have to send out those notices,” Walz said.

When asked if she has the votes among House DFLers to pass the bills in a special session, Hortman said she signed the budget agreement on behalf of her caucus to have the votes to pass the bills.

“We will deliver votes to pass those bills and I expect that the other leaders will do the same,” Hortman said.

The votes are part of their discussions about a special session, Walz said. They’re at a point where the Legislature is so closely divided that one legislator’s vote could defeat a bill.

“When we’re this close and the issues are this divisive, there’s going to need to be an agreement on delivering votes,” Walz said.

Remaining budgets

Concerns have come up about the transportation budget that legislative leaders are discussing and the transportation committee chairs have been involved in those discussions, Demuth said.

Legislative leaders were meeting on Wednesday to also discuss the taxes bill. The taxes bill is currently 12 pages long and Murphy said they were looking at items to add back into it. Demuth said they know there are a lot of concerns with the short taxes bill because many of the “good provisions” were removed that the taxes working group couldn’t agree on.

The eligibility of undocumented adult immigrants for MinnesotaCare, the state’s health insurance program for low-income residents, has been a sticking point in budget negotiations. The budget agreement calls for the eligibility to end Dec. 31 this year, but DFL leaders have said their caucus would like it to be in a standalone bill rather than included in the health and human services bill.

Murphy said it remains important to the Senate DFL for that to be a standalone bill. Hortman said they’ve had conversations with Demuth about it but declined to comment further. Demuth said discussions have included adding some essential items to a standalone bill as a guarantee that it would pass and be enacted.