Minnesota lawmakers on Sunday missed the deadline for adopting major proposals for education, public safety and other spending priorities – raising the possibility of another special session to complete the unfinished business.
The Republican-led Senate and DFL-controlled Chamber reached the deadline at midnight on Sunday, without going through a number of broad policy packages, including a pre-arranged $ 4 billion tax deal. A spokeswoman for House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said earlier Sunday that she planned to ask Walz for a brief special session to close the accounts if they reached deals on Sunday. But this opportunity was met with resistance from Republican leaders.
“We are not interested in a special session,” said Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona.
Only the governor can convene a special session, a regular event in the last decade, as the legislature has often missed deadlines for completing its work. DFL Gov. Tim Waltz has said many times over the past few months that he will not call anyone else and has not decided on Sunday afternoon whether to change his mind.
Miller said Sunday afternoon that he had gone to meet with Hortman and try to complete the education spending package, which he said was a top priority for both sides. “I think we are very, very close,” he said of the education agreement. But at 22:30 the package remained in motion.
Miller said he still believes there is a way to close various expense accounts without a special session. But Senate Minority Leader Melissa Lopez Franzen, DFL-Edina, said that was no longer possible.
Lopez Franzen said lawmakers are approaching an agreement on health care and human services spending.
“We’re trying to unblock the traffic jam here,” she said, accusing Miller of not bringing Democrats to the Senate to the table to get the job done. “We are ready to work. We are ready to clear this congestion. But no, there is a mistake on both sides.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the minority in the House of Representatives, Kurt Dowd, R-Crown, blamed Democrats. He said that “they are not releasing the unnecessary expenses they want to make at the moment”.
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