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Budget blowup? 2 reasons legislature may not finish timely budget

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Published  May 5, 2025 5:49pm CDT
Politics
FOX 9
Budget blowup? 2 reasons legislature may not finish timely budget

Budget blowup? 2 reasons legislature may not finish timely budget

A couple major disputes could derail the state legislature before the budget deadline two weeks from Monday.

The Brief

    • Disputes over education and healthcare funding in the tied House are threads threatening to unravel the Minnesota budget sweater.
    • In the education bill, the GOP insists on ending unemployment benefits for seasonal school workers in 2028. Democrats reluctantly accepted the provision in committee, but backed out before the bill got to the floor for a vote of the full House.
    • In the healthcare bill, the fight is over whether to continue allowing undocumented migrants to get coverage through MN Care. A lot more of them have signed up than expected, and the costs are about 32% more than expected to date. Republicans want to remove all of them from MN Care.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A couple major disputes could derail the state legislature before the budget deadline two weeks from Monday.

"This is the time when deals come together and where people are working hard to make that happen," said Floor Leader Jamie Long, (DFL-Minneapolis).

Deals undone

Destroying the sweater?:

Leaders from both parties agree the education and healthcare budgets are the threads that could unravel the entire budget sweater.

Democrats blew up an education agreement negotiated in committee last week because it included a provision ending unemployment benefits in 2028 for seasonal school workers.

"This was the negotiated way to get out of that box," said Floor Leader Harry Niska, (R-Ramsey). "We need to move forward on funding education. We need to move forward getting a budget."

Republicans argued the bus drivers, teacher’s aides and others signed up for jobs that last nine months.

And even though it doesn’t save taxpayers a penny in the current budget, it was a GOP priority to end the benefits created during the DFL trifecta.

"The three parameters that we had for this was the repeal of 2028 for the UI (unemployment insurance)," said Rep. Ron Kresha, (R-Little Falls), the House GOP education finance chair. "We had the $40 million target for READ Act and then a zero base budget."

Undoing recent changes?

'Protect the trifecta':

Democrats say they’re standing up for workers in education and in the healthcare battle, they’re standing up for undocumented immigrants and the hospital system.

Republicans want to exclude noncitizens from MN Care after 20,197 people enrolled by April 24, nearly three times the expected final number.

So the costs could triple, but doctors, insurers, and hospital leaders all say the coverage can save taxpayers money by keeping people in preventive care instead of emergency rooms.

And DFL leaders say it has no immediate effect on the bottom line to wrap up their work.

"All we need to do right now is get a budget," said Rep. Long. "A lot of these provisions are extraneous - they're policy provisions, the GOP trying to leverage funding our government to get additional concessions - and so that I think is the real threat for us being able to end session on time."

What's next?

Timeline:

May 19 is the end of the session, but June 30 is the deadline to avoid a government shutdown, so if they need a special session, there’s a little wiggle room.

PoliticsSt. Paul