St. Paul, M.N. – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has yet to schedule a special session for lawmakers to try and pass a state budget, but one legislator thinks it will likely take a larger push to settle differences.
“[Legislative] leadership will end up in a room,” said Representative Jim Joy of Hawley on The Flag’s What’s on your Mind?
“If they’re going to let the [committee] chairs try to figure out their [budget] bills there’s eventually going to be a stop time when they say we’re going to get involved in this.”
The 2025 legislative session ended this month without agreement on the remaining budget bills, which could lead to a possible government shutdown if a budget isn’t in place by July 1st.
Saying there are a half dozen remaining bills under negotiation, Joy says there are differences, even among DFL members, about matters like slashing county and local aid by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Among outstanding bill includes a controversial provision to remove undocumented adult immigrants from the state’s health insurance program.
But Joy believes Republicans did succeed in their effort to fight what he called “waste, fraud and abuse” at the state level during the regular legislative session.
“Our main thing was basically playing defense and stopping any new [tax] increases and mandates,” said Joy. “I’d say those are wins.”
Even before July 1st, layoff notices need to be sent out to state workers by June 1st as an early warning of a possible partial government shutdown without a state budget in place.
