The legislature adjourned it’s one-day special session after passing 11 bills to balance the budget, and four additional bills, including investment in infrastructure and removing adult illegal immigrants from subsidized health insurance programs.  

“This is not the session Minnesotans deserve,” Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson (East Grand Forks) said. “At the end of the day, government bureaucracy will grow by $770 million while vulnerable seniors and schools will face $461 million in cuts. The only reason we are facing cuts is because Democrats spent the entire surplus, committed taxpayers to expensive benefits we can’t afford, and refused to recognize that we simply don’t have an unlimited piggy bank.”  

The total two-year budget is about $66 billion dollars, and there is also $4.2 billion in new revenue over four years by raising the cost of health care, nursing home care, and nickel and diming Minnesotans in every part for their lives. Efforts to raise the health care provider tax and a new tax on social media companies had support from across the DFL caucus but ultimately stalled out in the tied House.  

A $700 million bonding bill focused on roads, bridges, and clean water passed both bodies and provides important and sensible investments into vital infrastructure. Unfortunately, major efforts to address fraud with a new Office of Inspector General were opposed by Democrats in the House, despite having passed 60-7 in the Senate.  

A bill to repeal MNCare, a taxpayer-subsidized insurance benefit, for adults in the U.S. illegally passed both bodies early in the day, meaning it will make it to the Governor’s desk for his signature. The agreement to end this benefit sparked angry protests from DFL legislators outside the Governor’s Capitol office.  

“While the progressive, activist base of the Democrat party protested outside the Governor’s office, commonsense Minnesotans wondered when they were going to be the priority. This budget makes very small steps to putting Minnesotans first; Minnesotans are left wondering who made out better: state government and bureaucracy, or families and small businesses? Minnesotans deserve better,” Johnson concluded.