Minnesota lawmakers need more time to hammer out bigger budget issues

Final hour of the 2025 Minnesota legislative session

The legislative session in Minnesota is coming to an end by midnight Monday, but a state budget still hasn't passed. FOX 9's Soyoung Kim has the latest.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - It is down to the wire for the Minnesota Legislature to pass the next two-year budget. The regular session ends when the clock strikes midnight.

Slow crawl in final hours

The backstory:

The Minnesota Legislature is closely divided – tied in the House and Democrats have a one-seat majority in the Senate.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged lawmakers to get the rest of the budget bills across the finish line.

"Finish this thing up now. We got the deal, bring it in," said Walz. "These are hard compromises that had to be made. There’s passion around these issues."

Walz referred to what he called a universal agreement he had announced with legislative leaders late last week. That two-year budget agreement was roughly $66 billion.

What we know:

Minnesota lawmakers worked over the weekend and made some progress on several budget bills.

However, leaders still need to get member buy-in on this broader agreement – especially on some of the bigger, more contentious issues, including taxes, education, transportation, and health and human services.

"We’re going to go into special session. I don’t think that it is right to say that the deal is coming undone. I think what I’m concerned about is the commitment to finish the work," said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul).

"People are working in their conference committees. There are different areas that they are finding sticking points, but they’re working their way through. That is how this is intended to go, but nothing is being held up intentionally," said House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.

What's next:

Lawmakers said they do need more time. The question now is when the governor will call the special session and how long it will go.

A budget needs to be passed by June 30 to avoid a government shutdown.