|
Minnesota Update
Legislature on Break as Last Committee Deadline Passes
Yesterday marked the passage of the third legislative committee deadline, the date by which all major appropriation and finance bills must be passed out of their respective committees. The legislature now goes on a week-long recess in observance of the Easter/Passover holidays. Legislators will return next Tuesday, April 11th with roughly six weeks to go before the constitutional deadline to adjourn on May 22, 2023.
When they return, the major budget bills will need to be heard in the Senate Finance Committee or the House Ways & Means Committee and then voted on by all members of the Senate and House of Representatives. Once each chamber has passed their respective budget proposals, legislative leaders will appoint ten-member conference committees (with five members from each chamber) to negotiate the differences in the bills. The House and Senate budgets must be identical, upon repassage, in order to be sent to the governor for his signature. Throughout the remainder of the process, the House and Senate will be working with the governor’s office and department heads to produce budgets that hopefully many can agree upon. Budget bills only require a regular majority to pass each body, unlike bonding bills which require 60 percent approval for passage.
A couple of weeks ago, Gov. Walz and legislative leaders stated that they believe they have an advantage to finishing out this session on time because of the “global targets” that have already been reached and met in their committee budgets. In past years, a global agreement hasn’t generally been reached until closer to the end of the legislative session, if at all. The recently reached global agreement included specific numbers for each committee budget which puts them at an advantage to agree on an overall budget since all bodies are working towards a common number.
Capital Investment
One large area of contention could be the Senate capital investment package. The House has already passed their version of a capital investment bill, but last month, the Minnesota Senate took up and attempted to pass its own capital investment bonding bill. However, the bill failed on a 33-32 vote and fell well short of the 60% supermajority threshold of the 41 votes required for a bonding bill. The bill failed to receive any of the seven Republican votes it will eventually need. Members of the Senate minority generally use bills such as capital investment as their “bargaining chip” for the end of the session to hopefully get provisions such as tax relief. As the session wraps up, a bonding proposal will likely be a piece of the overall budget agreement to end the session as it is a key priority for Gov. Walz and DFL legislators.
Legislative Deadlines
The following are a series of committee deadlines that will guide the Minnesota Legislature’s process as they move through the session:
- April 4, 2023, 5:00 p.m. to April 10, 2023: Legislative Recess
- May 22, 2023: Deadline to adjourn legislative session.
|