Good morning,
It wasn't pretty, but they did it. Minnesota has a budget, and won't have a government shutdown. The final bills passed Wednesday evening after a few final bouts of gamesmanship. [ Read more from Tim Pugmire]
Lawmakers wrapped up the most controversial part of the budget Tuesday night, passing a public safety budget despite criticism from some DFL lawmakers that it didn't go far enough in overhauling policing laws. [Read more from Brian Bakst]
Early Wednesday morning, lawmakers passed a state government budget that ended Gov. Tim Walz's COVID-19 emergency powers, though not until a brief standoff in which charges of broken promises were flung around.
Ultimately, the bill passed, and the emergency ended either immediately on Wednesday, or today, depending on which legal interpretation you follow. The legislative language says it ends July 1, but arguably the emergency power statute says the emergency powers end as soon as both houses vote to end it. It probably matters only for bragging rights.
Walz signed all the spending bills promptly Wednesday night, leaving just the final piece of the budget, the tax bill, to be enacted.
That tax bill — which unlike other parts of the budget wouldn't cause a government shutdown if not passed by July 1 — was held to the end. The House, after much debate, passed the tax bill early Thursday morning — and then, in a power move, adjourned sine die, for the session. That put the Senate in a bind: approve the House version of the tax bill, or get no tax bill at all.
Remember: The original deadline for the Legislature to pass a budget was back in May. They blew past that. July 1 was the backup deadline, the one with actual consequences if nothing happened.
Former Supreme Court candidate Michelle MacDonald had her law license suspended Wednesday, in a case where two justices had to recuse themselves because MacDonald had run against them. She was accused of making false statements against the integrity of a judge, while already on probation. [Read more from The Associated Press]
A five-judge panel was appointed to hear lawsuits related to redistricting in Minnesota — and probably, eventually, to draw the new maps themselves. [Read the order]
One of the two similar referendums to overhaul the Minneapolis Police Department is being withdrawn in favor of a citizen-led initiative. The "Yes 4 Minneapolis" coalition submitted more than 20,000 signatures for a charter amendment to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety. It was broadly similar to another proposal sponsored by the city council, which is now moving to withdraw the duplicate measure. [Read more from Jon Collins]
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld died Wednesday at the age of 88. [Read more]
Something completely different: Back in the very first Capitol View I wrote, in early March, I on a spur-of-the-moment added "something completely different" — my thoughts on the finale of Marvel's WandaVision. This week I finished the second Disney+ MCU show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; like WandaVision I felt Falcon had a messy final episode that didn't quite bring everything it set up to a proper close. A lot of the big character moments felt rushed or forced, and there was a lot of telling instead of showing. But unlike its predecessor it at least addressed all the major thematic points it raised, and so was in that sense a more satisfying show, in my opinion.
Listen: The Legislature's been meeting for what seems like forever, and they'll be back again before long. One might even call it the song that never ends. It goes on and on, my friend... [Watch] | |
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