SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota legislature did what they intended to do during a special session by passing a budget.
The House and Senate approved $66 billion dollars worth spending measures through a series of bills. It prevented tens of thousands of state workers from receiving layoff notices on Tuesday.
Governor Tim Walz praised compromises from both parties and stood up for the agreements that were made.
“I stood in front of you a couple of years ago when the statement was ‘this is the largest increase in state government budget in history.’ Well, this is the largest decrease in state history because the one-time funding ended exactly as we said it a couple years ago,” Walz said.
GOP Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring says Republicans prioritized Minnesotans.
“We made a lot of great strides both looking at that structural deficit, reducing that, and making sure that Minnesota families don’t have the pressure of additional taxes on them this year,” Demuth said.
The Minnesota Department of Management and Budget said in March the state was facing a projected budget deficit of $6 billion for the fiscal years 2028-2029.
The most controversial bill was to remove undocumented adults from being eligible for taxpayer-funded MinnesotaCare.
“Republicans voted for things they didn’t want in this, too. The trade was is the only way they would ever give those votes is if we did this and pulled back that care back at the end of the year starting January 1st,” Walz explained.
“This was a priority that we had, but we looked at the entire budget overall. From the time we started working at the beginning of the session and started meeting with the governor, there was a push to increase revenue no matter what. That was our line in the sand,” Demuth explained.
