The End of Regular Session
On Monday, the 2021 regular session of the Minnesota Legislature ended. Unfortunately, we were not able to finalize and vote on a state budget before regular session ended. However, Governor Tim Walz and the leadership of both the Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate agreed on a budget deal that will be voted on in an upcoming special session.
The budget deal would spend roughly $51.2 billion over the next two years. The details of the budget will be worked out in the next few weeks, and the full Minnesota Legislature will likely vote on the budget in a June special session. Our fiscal year ends on June 30th, and we need to enact our new two-year budget before that date. I am glad that the governor and legislative leaders were able to come to a budget agreement before the end of the fiscal year. This means state government will not shut down.
Nevertheless, I am disappointed that we could not get this budget completed before the end of regular session this past Monday. The Minnesota Legislature needs to do a better job of getting work done on time. Special sessions always cost extra money. Whenever we fail to finish on time in regular session, Minnesota taxpayers are then forced to pay for the cost of special session. We certainly could have finished on time this year, but too much time was wasted on political posturing.
I will make sure to keep you updated as we move toward a completed budget.
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