State budget deal for Walz, Minnesota legislators unraveling already?

Bipartisan state budget deal reached

Legislators and Gov. Tim Walz announced a state budget deal has been reached, just days before the legislative session is over. FOX 9’s Corin Hoggard has more on what we know so far.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The deal is done for a Minnesota budget, but it may have already started coming undone, almost as soon as it was announced.

New deal unraveling already?

Compromise condemned:

A large faction of DFL lawmakers voiced their displeasure before the rollout even finished.

The deal is clearly a compromise and it doesn’t seem to have a lot of fans.

But we already know some folks will hold their noses and vote for it, so we’ll find out soon if it has enough votes.

Legislators reach state budget deal [RAW]

Minnesota legislatures and Gov. Tim Walz held a news conference about a bipartisan deal reached for the state budget targets. The legislative session is over at midnight on Monday, but a special session may be needed.

"You've seen this movie before, and you know how it ends," said House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, (DFL-Brooklyn Park).

The smiles looked familiar on the faces of Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders Thursday morning, but what they saw as a sequel to 2019 may have a different ending.

Before they could finish announcing a budget deal, an interruption came from outside.

Progressive members knocked on the door, angry about a compromise to end MN Care coverage for adult undocumented immigrants.

"We have made a decision in a compromise that suggests that they are other," said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, (DFL-St. Paul) as she was almost drowned out by chanting and knocking from the anteroom to the governor's Cabinet Room. "And that is something that people are going to object to."

"I'm not going to sugarcoat how difficult this was," said Gov. Walz. "These lawmakers are there, they have their voice heard, we'll vote on this. We didn't expect everybody to be happy in this. I think many of us compromised."

What's the deal?

Rollbacks from 2023:

From the anteroom to a packed press conference, progressive legislators shared their displeasure.

The program has cost 32% more than projected so far and has almost triple the expected enrollment.

But 33 members who said they’ll vote no to any rollbacks, even a DFL compromise leaving children with coverage.

"I think they made the political calculus that to do the least harm," said Rep. Cedrick Frazier, (DFL-New Hope). "We think this is major harm to tens of thousands of people. So we don't agree with that."

What now?

What we know:

The parties compromised on a lot of other issues, too, including private school funding, paid family and medical leave, and unemployment for seasonal school workers.

And Senate GOP Leader Mark Johnson was notably absent from the agreement and the press conference, but he said later he’s just not sure yet how his caucus will vote.

What's next:

The legislative session ends Monday night at midnight. If a special session is needed, Gov. Walz would have to call it. Leaders say they're hoping a special session will only last a day.