One week after a marathon special session that saw lawmakers pass most of the major budget bills needed to fund the state’s government over the next two years, Gov. Tim Walz on Friday signed those bills into law.
After signing the omnibus education finance bill during a ceremony Thursday at Bruce Vento Elementary School in St. Paul, the governor issued a release Friday morning announcing he has now signed each of the 13 bills passed during last week’s special session, which concluded shortly before 7:00 a.m. May 25.
“At a time when politics is filled with chaos and division, Minnesota is showing the rest of the nation there’s another way to govern,” Walz said in a statement. “We can work together. We can find compromise. And in one of the only divided legislatures in the country, we can overcome differences and put together a budget that improves lives. We set out to make meaningful investments in health care, education, and community prosperity, and that’s exactly what this budget does.”
These are the special session omnibus budget bills the governor signed:
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HF1: the omnibus education finance bill, which was signed by Gov. Walz Thursday, and funds the Department of Education and programs relating to E-12 education;
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SF1: the omnibus agriculture, housing and rural development finance bill, which provides a budget and policy changes for the Department of Agriculture, the Board of Animal Health, the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, the Housing Finance Agency, and broadband development;
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HF2: the omnibus jobs and energy finance bill, which provides a budget and policy changes for jobs, economic development, energy, commerce and economic development programs;
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SF3: the omnibus Legacy finance bill, which enacts budget and policy changes for programs related to outdoor heritage, clean water, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage;
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HF5: the omnibus tax bill, which makes a number of changes to tax policy and moves the state into nearly full conformity with the 2017 federal tax bill;
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HF6: the omnibus transportation finance bill, which funds and directs the Department of Transportation, Metropolitan Council, and Department of Public Safety, among others;
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SF7: the omnibus environment and natural resources finance bill that funds and guides the Department of Natural Resources, the Pollution Control Agency, the Board of Soil and Water Resources and the Minnesota Zoo, among others;
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SF8: the omnibus judiciary and public safety finance bill, which provides a budget and policy changes for the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Corrections and courts across the state, among others;
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HF10: the omnibus pension bill, which makes administrative changes to certain public pension systems;
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SF10: the omnibus state government finance bill, which funds and directs the Legislature and the state’s other offices, agencies, boards, councils and other functions;
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HF12: a bill that provides funding for housing infrastructure;
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SF12: the omnibus health and human services finance bill, which funds the Department of Health and Human Services while making a number of significant policy changes; and
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HF13: the revisor’s bill, which corrects mistakes in Minnesota statutes.