A special session of the Minnesota Legislature is headed for after Memorial Day weekend as lawmakers continue to sort through unresolved bills that will make up the next two-year state budget.
On Thursday, the conference committees between the House and Senate that have transformed into unofficial working groups met to continue their negotiations on spending plans for K-12 education, transportation, human services and economic development. Those panels met in public, after many meetings over the last several days have been in secret.
Gov. Tim Walz won't officially call the special session until everything is wrapped up, but now it will be next week at the earliest, leaders conceded.
"It is clear we're not going to have a special session by the end of this week because that's tomorrow. But I hope that in the work of today, and people are working really hard today, and hopefully tomorrow, we're able to button these things up,' said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-Saint Paul.
Murphy, GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth and former DFL Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman gave negotiators until 5 p.m. Wednesday to find agreement between House and Senate versions of different spending plans, but none of them met that deadline.
The House leaders told reporters they are pushing for everything to be finalized by Friday and then the bills can be drafted for a mid-week special session next week.
"Even though it's slower than we would like, things are going well. It doesn't appear that anyone has quit or given up, and that is a very good sign in the right direction," Demuth said.
Hortman noted that the situation becomes more complicated the closer lawmakers get to June with no budget passed. Layoff notices will go out to agencies without continued funding approvals starting June 1 — the government will shutdown if there's no budget by July 1.
"That is really the next deadline that comes after May 19," Hortman said. "And human beings are deadline driven. So Friday is May 30. Saturday is May 31 I think people are probably not going to want to be here on Saturday May 31, so I think the drive will be to probably finish by the 30th."
The Legislature adjourned the regular session Monday night, and the forthcoming special session will be the first since 2021, the last time there was divided government during a budget-writing year.
The margins are slim at the capitol; the House is tied at 67-67 for only the second time in history and the DFL has a one-seat majority in the Senate.
That means the make-up is more closely divided than ever before and it forced a compromise on a top-line budget agreement between Walz and legislative leaders with both the GOP and the DFL.
Republicans and Democrats shared power on committees with co-chairs, so they had to find agreement among themselves before they could begin conversations with the DFL-led Senate, which is unique.
Murphy lamented that dynamic has made the process of reconciling bills between both chambers difficult.
"You would expect that the House conferees would come in together united, like, 'we passed a bill, and we're united, and we're going to fight for our position,'" she told reporters Thursday. "But instead, the House is coming in like a two headed monster."
Hortman and Demuth — who had a rare joint news conference Friday — both said that despite the bumpy start to the session, they worked well together this year.
"We had legitimate disagreements at the beginning of session. So it wasn't about trust or not trust, a relationship or not relationship. It was about a very different view of what was unfolding at the beginning of session," Hortman said. "We're at a different phase of session where we're working together to get things done."
Demuth echoed those feelings.
"I think that the way that we have set up our organizational agreement here in the House has served us well," she said.
Caroline Cummings
Caroline Cummings is an Emmy-winning reporter with a passion for covering politics, public policy and government. She is thrilled to join the WCCO team.