ST. PAUL — With five days left in the legislative session and no budget deal struck, Minnesota lawmakers are increasingly conceding that a special session this summer is likely.
Daily budget negotiations with Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders had yet to yield major updates as the Legislature approaches its May 19 deadline, but lawmakers from both chambers said Wednesday, May 14, that getting all the work done by next Monday is unlikely.
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Sen. Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said Wednesday while entering negotiations that a special session is “very, very likely, if not inevitable.”
“We need to do good work for the people of Minnesota, and I think … that is more important than finishing at midnight on the 19th of May … I think at this point, it is really difficult to get done and do the work in the way we need to,” Murphy said. “So yes, I think a special session is very, very likely, if not inevitable.”
Walz said Tuesday at an unrelated press conference, “We’re probably getting pretty close to that,” referencing 2019’s brief one-day special session. He emphasized Monday the same position as Murphy — the importance of the “right product” over when the product comes.
“I think there’s a real sense of optimism,” Walz said. “There’s no doubt we’re at the eleventh hour here. It’s time to get it done, but I think the biggest thing is to get the right product done.”
Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, gave a one-word answer when asked whether a special session is inevitable: “Yes.”
Republican leaders have yet to voice their perceived likelihood of a special session. When Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, was asked Wednesday whether she feels there will be a special session, she said, “I feel we’re going back into more conversation.”
The Minnesota Legislature isn’t a stranger to special sessions. Since 2010, Minnesota has seen six special sessions to pass a state budget: 2021, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2011 and 2010, according to the A budget must be enacted by July 1; if not, the state could face a partial or full government shutdown.
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Walz must call a special session before it becomes official. He said Tuesday he thinks a special session would be more “perfunctory” if it happened.
“The thing is, when we rush the revisers and things, you might have a chance for some of these errors in drafting … I still think there’s a chance we can get this thing by the time, but I think as the hours go by, it becomes a little more difficult,” he said.
In the last decade, no special session has exceeded two weeks except 2021, when the special session stretched 24 days to “enact a balanced state budget and to address the Governor’s extension of the COVID-19 Peacetime Emergency,” according to the legislative reference library.
Minnesota taxpayers absorb the costs of special sessions, and while the exact amount depends on numerous factors, including whether individual lawmakers claim per diem, House Public Information Services estimated roughly in 2019.
In early April, released by the Senate and House revealed differences amounting to millions of dollars, particularly within cuts to E-12 education (early childhood through high school) and human services — the two largest areas of state spending.
Walz on Monday morning said “the idea” is for the deal to come with resolutions to policy sticking points that leaders have spoken on — such as or unemployment .
Following a February forecast from Minnesota Management and Budget showing the state could be facing a , lawmakers are proposing across-the-board cuts of up to $2 billion over the next two years to the state’s budget, which is expected to be
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The Trust Project
