As of writing this column, the regular legislative session has come to an end, and the announcement of a special session is imminent. While a handful bills got passed by our constitutional adjournment day of May 19, many were left undone. In fact, most of our largest budget bills are still left on the table: Health and Human Services, Education Finance, and Taxes, to name a few. Overall, I’m disappointed that this was the outcome.

As I’m sure many remember, the start of session was full of controversy. In a tied chamber, House Democrats refused to show up for about three weeks, and as a result, everything at the Legislature and all the work we had to do was also delayed by the same period of time. This is a big part of why we are so far behind. Their political stunt has delayed our work, and I take issue with that.

Fortunately, we’ve finished a few bills: Veterans, Housing, Legacy, State Government and Elections, Public Safety, Agriculture, and Human Service Policy. We got the work done in these areas, so we will not need to revisit them again in the inevitable special session.

Unfortunately, we have a much longer list of things yet to be done: Jobs, Health and Human Services, Human Services Finance, Taxes, Bonding, Higher Education, Education Finance, Energy, Commerce, Transportation, and Environment.

Being that we are adjourned with a lot of work left to do, I want folks to know what this process will look like. Most of these bills went through committees, went to either the House or Senate floors to be voted on, and then moved to conference committees. For any of the bills that completed that process but did not receive a final vote, those conference committees are still meeting, but during this period they are called “working groups.” The groups are tasked with coming together to determine final language. Once all these agreements have been reached, a special session will be called. However, if deals are not reached, these bills will be decided by the governor and a small group of leaders.

In my opinion, this represents a total breakdown of the process and demonstrates a clear lack of transparency. These decisions should be made in public, and the public should have the opportunity to weigh in. After all, these pieces of legislation will affect families across the state – they should know what is being debated and what is at stake. Minnesotans are tired of backroom deals made by a small group of people. This is not the way we should be doing business.

This process only applies to bills that made it to conference committee. Our Education Finance bill didn’t even make it to that point. That bill has been sitting on general orders in the Senate for weeks, and Senate Democrats have failed to bring it forward for a vote. During the final days of session, a different education bill was brought forward – one that takes $77 million from the Northern Lights Express (NLX) and uses that money to fund UI for seasonal school workers. When we were debating that issue, I made a motion to bring the full House education bill forward so that we could have a meaningful discussion. That bill received sweeping bipartisan support in a tied House – there’s no reason we couldn’t discuss it in the Senate. Unfortunately, Democrats elected to use a procedural vote to avoid debate on the topic. Considering that this area comprises about 40% of our overall budget, I found this to be very disappointing.

Overall, I’m hopeful we will have things wrapped up by mid-June at the very latest. With a looming $6 billion deficit, the state of our budget demands it. As we move closer to a special session, I will continue advocating for greater transparency in this process, and I will keep folks updated with information as it becomes available.