Friends and neighbors,
The 2025 regular legislative session officially ended at midnight on May 20. Like all of you, I was hopeful we could finish our work on time, but unfortunately, we’ll need a brief special session in the coming days to wrap things up. The Legislature is required to pass a balanced state budget, and that job wasn’t completed.
The reason for that is simple: House Democrats refused to come to work for the first three weeks of the legislative session, and that delay really set us back. Despite our best efforts, the lost time caused by their delay was too much to overcome and we ran out of time.
There are still nine budget bills left to pass, plus a possible tax bill, bonding bill, and a few policy bills. Importantly, we still need to pass new budgets for two of the largest areas of our state budget: education and health and human services.
There are also some significant disagreements still on the table. One of the biggest is whether the state should continue offering taxpayer-funded healthcare to immigrants who are in the country illegally. This has been a sticking point all session, though it is notable that Democrats in other states, like California Governor Gavin Newsom, have paused similar programs due to unsustainable costs. About 20,000 undocumented immigrants have enrolled in Minnesota’s program in just the first few months of its existence, far exceeding predictions.
Another item that may or may not come up is a tax bill. At this point, it’s unclear. A Senate proposal was floated that would include significant tax increases and cut aid to cities and counties, which would lead to higher local property taxes for homeowners. I will be a strong no vote if that proposal comes to the Senate floor.
While there’s still work ahead, we did get several key bills across the finish line this session:
- Human Services Policy: This bill protects taxpayer dollars and strengthens care across our state. The bill cracks down on fraud in childcare and healthcare programs, improves safety rules in assisted living and hospice facilities, and eases paperwork burdens on mental health providers. It also ensures that people in care settings can designate a trusted support person to be by their side when needed.
- Agriculture and broadband: This bill supports Minnesota’s farmers and rural communities. It includes new funding for farmers affected by livestock damage, increases support for Farm to School programs, and ensures more accountability in food assistance programs. One key win was ending direct payments to a major nonprofit and instead moving that funding into a competitive grant process.
- Pensions reform: The pensions bill provides a nice boost for teachers and law enforcement officers. It includes cost-of-living increases for State Patrol and police officers, enhanced early retirement options for Tier II teachers, and key updates to duty disability benefits. While some amendments, such as our proposal to fully fund teacher pensions, were not adopted, the final package is a step in the right direction.
We will spend the next few days working on compromise agreements for the remaining budget bills. My area of focus will be the transportation bill, where I serve as the Republican lead on the committee. My relationship with Scott Dibble, the Democrat from Minneapolis who is the Senate’s Transportation Committee chair, is terrific, and I expect we will have little issue reaching a timely compromise in the near future.
In the meantime, if you have any questions about where things stand or feedback on what is happening at the legislature, please reach out to me any time. It is a privilege to serve you.
Sincerely,