MPR News PM Update
 
A long, strange trip:
The legislature passes a budget
 

Hello and good morning,

Welcome to July! It'll be sunny, warm and dry today with highs in the mid-80s to lower 90s, except near Lake Superior.

At long last, Minnesota has a new $52-billion, two year state budget . The Legislature needed almost every minute of the regular session on May 17 and the special session ending midnight Wednesday to get it done.

The final product doesn't include any of the tax increases DFL Gov. Tim Walz and House Democrats proposed earlier this year when the state was facing a budget deficit caused by the pandemic economy. The state actually ended up with a surplus, due to unexpectedly high tax revenues for the state plus federal money for COVID-19 relief.

The last budget piece to fall into place was the biggest one: education. The bill gives a boost in school funding: 2.45 percent for the first year of the budget and another 2 percent the second year.

Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said it was the biggest increase in 15 years, without imposing new requirements on schools.

Here's what else was notable:

  • The health and human services bill includes an extension of the health insurance reinsurance program designed to stabilize individual market premiums.
  • A bill that funds state government agencies also ended Walz's pandemic emergency powers.
  • The transportation bill increases funding for roads, bridges and transit.
  • The jobs bill has financial help for small businesses harmed by the pandemic.

 
Brandt Williams | MPR News 2009
 
Part of the new state budget's finance bill is a wind down of the eviction moratorium that protected tenants from evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wednesday's MPR News with Angela Davis focused on this topic: what comes after the moratorium ends as well as the broader problem of housing affordability in Minnesota. It's a phased ending where different things go into effect on different days, all the way through June 2022. These are the key dates for both renters and landlords to know.

What does the moratorium's end have you wondering about? Do you have questions? Shoot me a message on Twitter (DMs are open) or email me at gbirnstengel@mpr.org. I'll look to get them answered.

 
The Minneapolis City Council will take its Minneapolis Police Department charter amendment out of the running to avoid confusion with a similar citizen-driven one.

Both amendments would change the charter that requires Minneapolis to have a police department and instead create a new Department of Public Safety. The citizen-led amendment is led by the Yes 4 Minneapolis coalition, which dropped off more than 20,000 petition signatures in April to get striking the charter on the ballot. Yes 4 Minneapolis includes groups like Reclaim the Block, Black Visions and TakeAction Minnesota. 

 
What else to know
– Grace Birnstengel, MPR News
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