Capitol View for May 27

Good morning. Memorial Day weekend weather exceeded expectations. Purely gorgeous.

It’s now more than a week after the scheduled conclusion to 2025 legislative work and that work is still in progress. The grand plans of legislative leaders to wrap things up by the holiday weekend proved to be too ambitious. The next hope was that a working weekend for budget bill negotiators would lead to an early-this-week special session. That’s not happening. So now the back half of the week is the latest target zone. And there is good reason to do it soon. If there are budget areas that don’t get done by this weekend, employees in the affected agencies and programs will get layoff notices. Public employee contracts require 30 days notice “whenever practicable” and at least 21 days notice. It sets up dominoes that could lead to bumping, to cashed-out vacation and sick time and just all-around uncertainty for workers.

Even with approved budgets, some agencies might be staring down layoffs anyway. Some agency leaders have warned that there isn’t enough money or there are federal funds in jeopardy that could lead to scaled-back head counts. The new fiscal year begins on July 1 so executive branch managers could opt to do the slimming soon to avoid carrying additional costs into the next budget period. The Minnesota Department of Health has already seen layoff notices due to federal funding concerns, although the department delayed them after a court injunction. Watch for more agencies to count heads again and determine what they can afford. Employees who get word of pullbacks can let us know by emailing Brian, Clay or Dana (bbakst@mpr.org, cmasters@mpr.org, dferguson@mpr.org).

Gov. Tim Walz addressed the unresolved budget situation on Politics Friday. He expressed optimism that a final plan will be developed soon and that it can be ratified in a one-day special session (one day can mean up to 24 hours of floor time so don’t expect a banker’s hours finish). Hear the full interview here, but I pulled some key excerpts:

On when he might call a special session: “We have just a couple things to button up. I think if we could get in by next Wednesday or so we could get this thing finished by June 1. And I think these legislators want to go home, too, and they're very close. We're really close on a compromise.”

On his confidence in the January paid family and medical leave program launch succeeding: “It's my job to make sure we get this out. We roll out hundreds of things that work. But I know it's the planes that don't land — MNSure, MNLARS. But we've proven together, we fixed MNLARS. We have a different way we go about these rollouts. And I have confidence in the team that's over there.”

On his upcoming reelection decision: “I am proud to do this job. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it. I see it as public service. I think I'm still providing that service. After this session is over, we'll take a look. I don't have any claim. This is not my office. … And I think after this session gets over, I'll assess that. But I'm not misleading folks. As I said at this time, I'm inclined to do it again.” (He gave himself an end-of-July timeline, which is later than he had been throwing out there previously.)

On an agreement to end MinnesotaCare insurance coverage after Dec. 31 for undocumented immigrant adults: “They will go to the emergency room and they will get the care, and it will go unpaid for and it will add to the cost to everyone else. That's what will happen. But the Republicans made it clear that that was a line in the sand that could not be crossed, and nothing else that we could give. And we attempted to try and give in other areas.”

On an Amazon announcement it would suspend a data center project in Becker, citing regulatory concerns and a change to a state tax exemption under consideration: “They can make their decision. I would argue that, for what it's worth, and I know a little bit of this, it's pretty bad lobbying. We're still in the middle of this. This isn't a done deal, and we're still negotiating where that would be. Look, we're very attractive to them for many reasons. We're attractive because of the cold weather. We're attractive because of the access to electricity that's affordable, especially renewable electricity. More than that, those are things that they're still going to need. And we also have one of the most generous tax credits as it stands, but we have to balance our budget. And I think a lot of Minnesotans are saying, well, you couldn't do a tax cut to my sales tax, but you could do a tax cut to Jeff Bezos, and I think that was one where it's right sized.”

On stalled legislation to create a new Office of Inspector General to investigate claims of fraud or misuse of tax dollars: “I was neutral on it. (I asked what he meant by it). What I meant was, is I don't think it was the most effective way to get out this fraud issue in a bipartisan manner. But we certainly could live with it … If that Inspector General bill had passed both houses and got to me, we would sign it. But I think we made the case that it is not the most effective to get at what you want. It's not as cost effective, and the other things that we put in place.”

Walz and other key leaders were speakers at a state Memorial Day event Monday. Regina Medina covered the event at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, where the Red Bull division marching band played and there were tributes to soldiers who died while serving this country. President Donald Trump spoke at a national remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery. His remarks there commemorated the sacrifices made. “We salute them in their eternal and everlasting glory. And we continue our relentless pursuit of America’s destiny as we make our nation stronger, prouder, freer and greater than ever before.” But Trump was also on social media yesterday and was more caustic in tone.