Legislative Update – May 29, 2025Dear Neighbors, Shortly before our midnight deadline on Monday, the 19th, the House adjourned the 2025 regular legislative session. The House and Senate passed many of our budget bills before that deadline, sending them to the Governor for his signature. However, other parts of the budget were still locked in negotiations, meaning we will have to return for a short special session to complete our outstanding work. The truth is that “special” sessions are quite common in the Minnesota Legislature, especially during times of divided government control. I’ve served during many of them. In fact, the only recent budget year we haven’t needed a special session was in 2023, when DFLers in the House, Senate, and Governor’s office worked efficiently together to pass one of the most transformative budgets in state history.  I wanted to send a quick update this week as we await final negotiations on what passed, what we still have to do, and the status of some of the legislation I authored this year. What Got Done During Regular SessionBefore adjournment, we passed budget bills on Veterans and Military Affairs, Agriculture, Housing, Judiciary and Public Safety, and the committee where I serve as Vice Chair, State Government and Elections. We also passed our Legacy bill funding projects that preserve our environment and arts and cultural heritage, a pensions bill to help our teachers, firefighters, and police, and a human services policy bill. Our Pensions bill invests in state aid pension improvements for Minnesota’s teachers, police, firefighters, and public employees. The bill passed on a 133-1 vote. The bill adjusts the three-year cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) delay and provides significant COLA increases for police and firefighter members, as well as the state patrol. It also lowers the teacher retirement age from 62 to 60, while lowering the reduction percentage from 6% to 5% for teachers with 30 years of service. This will allow our longtime teachers to retire earlier with lower penalties to their pensions. You can read more about the teacher pension adjustments here.  We also passed a Veterans and Military Affairs budget that does important work to protect our veterans and honor our debt to them. Unfortunately, we failed them with one provision left on the table. We failed to protect veterans from predatory claim sharks who steal hard-earned benefits through false promises that happily take money out of their pockets for doing little or no work in exchange. I’m committed to continuing this work in support of this provision because failure to live up to the promises we made to take care of our vets is not an option. Watch my speech on the House Floor here.  What Needs to be Done in Special SessionMany of the larger budget bills remain locked in negotiations. We still need to pass a K-12 Education budget, as well as our Health and Human Services budgets. Together, this represents more than three-quarters of our entire state budget. We also have not passed our budgets for Higher Education, Environment, Jobs and Labor, Transportation, Commerce and Taxes. Many of the provisions I worked on this year to strengthen our healthcare system and support our small independent pharmacies are in bills that are being negotiated. I’m working to ensure those pieces make it across the finish line, especially because they have strong bipartisan support. While we wait for final budget agreements and the Governor to officially call a special session, I’m focused on using this “extra” time talking to my colleagues and advocating for solutions to help strengthen our district and state. HOA UpdateOne proposal I’ve been working on, which did not make it this session, is my bipartisan HOA and CIC reform package, which I authored alongside GOP Sen. Eric Lucero, DFL Sen. Susan Pha, and GOP Rep. Shane Mekeland. All four of us were dedicated to passing the bill this year, and though we ran just shy of time on the clock, the fight is not over. Most major policy bills like this pass in even years, also known as our policy year. Our bill passed the Minnesota Senate this year with a two-thirds supermajority vote, showing widespread bipartisan support for reform. Throughout the legislative interim, I will continue to build bridges with legislators on both sides of the aisle, as well as HOA residents, owners, and managers to pass this bill next year. We will likely be bringing listening sessions on HOA Reform to a community near you over the summer. If you’d like to get involved or receive information on the dates for listening sessions over the summer and provide your input, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office.  |