State Relations Updates

Since the legislature adjourned the regular legislative session on May 17, legislators and the governor have been negotiating the details of the FY 22-23 state budget bills. The bipartisan budget agreement only reflects the total amount they will spend on each budget area, leaving the budget and policy details up to committee working groups. As of today, only three of the fourteen working groups have posted at least a partial agreement.

With only a few days remaining in the 2021 legislative session, it is unlikely that the Minnesota Legislature will finish its work by Monday. Governor Walz and legislative leaders are continuing to negotiate a final budget agreement. 

This week, conference committees continued to meet on the budget bills discussing the similarities and differences between the House and Senate proposals. The focus now turns to discussions between Governor Walz and legislative leaders.

There are just over two weeks until the 2021 legislative session is scheduled to conclude on Monday, May 17. This week, the legislature finished passing the remaining omnibus budget bills and the focus will now turn to the conference committee process. The higher education conference committee held two meetings this week. 

On Monday, April 19, the House passed its higher education omnibus bill by a vote of 74-59. The bill provides $39.75 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23, as well as a one-time increase of $2 million for the Natural Resources Research Institute. Now that the House and the Senate have passed their omnibus bills, a conference committee made up of five members from the House and five members from the Senate has been appointed. 

On Wednesday, April 14, the Senate passed its higher education omnibus bill by a vote of 38-29. The bill provides $15 million in new operations and maintenance funding for the University in FY22-23. 

On March 23, the House released its budget targets. The committee target for the entire higher education budget is an increase of $120 million above last biennium for a total of $3.526 billion. 

Governor's revised budget recommendations, Senate budget targets, and second committee deadline.

Today is the first deadline day at the Minnesota State Legislature. This means that any policy bill introduced this session must be passed by committees in the chamber of origin (House or Senate) to continue in the legislative process.
 We expect Governor Walz will release his revised budget recommendations next week in response to the February forecast.

February budget forecast, HEAPR funding, Capital Request, and Support the U Day

This week, House and Senate committees began shifting their work from overview presentations to legislation. In the first six weeks of the 2021 legislative session, there have already been over a thousand bills introduced for consideration.

Today marks the end of the fifth week of the 2021 regular session. Legislative activity was focused on committee work this week. Committees continued to hear presentations from various state department officials and took action on legislative priorities. 

On Tuesday, January 26, Governor Tim Walz announced Minnesota’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget—his budget proposal for the FY22-23 biennium. Read the press release.

House and Senate committees continued to hear overviews from state departments and agencies, as well as from key stakeholders, during the third week of the 2021 legislative session. 

The Minnesota Legislature convened the 2021 session on January 5.

Following the results of the 2020 election, the partisan makeup and leadership of the legislature looks similar to the previous two years, with Democrats in control of the House and Republicans in control of the Senate. Minnesota continues to have the only divided legislature in the country.