Special session called for Monday for legislators to finish Minnesota’s next budget 6p5e6u

The Minnesota Legislature intends to hold a one-day special session that will convene Monday, Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders announced in a t statement Friday. Walz called for the session to begin at 10 a.m. Monday. It includes 14 bills, including a standalone bill for modifying MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults and also a bill related to data centers. What that bill would do was not immediately clear, but financial incentives for data centers was a key sticking point for legislators this session. “We finally relented when it became apparent that this was how we would get both a bonding bill and a complete budget agreement ed,” DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman told reporters Friday afternoon. The “bonding bill” funds public construction projects and this year has a $700 million price tag. The budget agreement for the special session “is the result of hundreds of hours of good-faith, bipartisan debate on the best ways to improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of Minnesotans,” Walz said in his announcement. “While all sides had to make concessions in order to reach a compromise, I’m grateful to our legislative partners for their collaboration and dedication to moving Minnesota forward.” The agreement also said lawmakers can not add amendments to bills without sign-off from the leaders. “If there would be any amendments that would go on to any of the bills that are so far posted and the ones that are to come would have to be agreed upon by all four leaders and the governor,” Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth said. It’s been nearly three weeks since the regular session ended with less than 10 percent of the state budget approved. Since then, legislators have been slogging through negotiations on bills, blasting past deadlines put out by leaders, and arguing over aspects of legislation mostly behind closed doors. Negotiations on the last key budget bills — human services, transportation, health, education and taxes — have all been closing in on agreements this week. The final budget will likely add up to more than $66 billion for two years, which is smaller than the budget currently in place. Lawmakers must a budget by the end of June to avoid a partial government shutdown. In anticipation of that, the state had already sent out layoff notices to state nurses. Next week, the state is set to begin sending out layoff notices to all state workers in agencies without an enacted budget. The call for the special session was signed by Walz, as well as both GOP and DFL leaders in the House and Senate. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson hadn’t been part of the prior agreement but signed off on this one after gaining some additional concessions. His is important because bipartisan backing is needed here to speed the session along. “While Senate Republicans are not party to the overall budget agreement, we are glad to have found agreements to preserve jobs and invest in core infrastructure in our communities,” he said in a written statement. The agreement says that legislative leaders will not amendments to bills, and that the bills must be ed by both bodies before 7 a.m. on Tuesday. “ing it Monday will complete this session’s work for the people of Minnesota,” said DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy. 3p5149