REGIONAL- The Minnesota Legislature wrapped up its 2025 regular session late Monday night without completing its most essential task: passing a full two-year state budget. Lawmakers failed to finalize more than half of the necessary budget bills before the constitutional adjournment deadline, prompting the need for a special session in the coming days.
“My mouth is full of cuss words right now,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, on Monday. “We are waiting now for work to come over from the House of Representatives.”
House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, disputed Murphy’s remark and said her caucus had been prepared to work through the final days.
“We knew it was going to be difficult. But we were ready to get to work and do that right away, and you’ve seen compromise all the way through,” she said.
Legislative working groups made up of both House and Senate members were expected to meet through mid-week to hammer out the details of the remaining budget bills. Gov. Tim Walz said he would only call a special session once he is confident the bills are ready to pass.
“When the work’s done and they’re ready,” Walz said, “I’ll bring them back for a one-day special session and we’ll button things up.”
Despite a flurry of activity over the weekend and into Monday, the most closely divided Legislature in state history, with 101 Democrats, 100 Republicans, and an evenly-split House, couldn’t bridge the gaps in time. Only nine of the approximately 20 budget and policy bills made it through both chambers by the midnight deadline. Major items, including bills for education, health, human services, and transportation, remain unfinished.

Partial progress
Some smaller but still consequential measures were passed in the session’s final days:
 A $365 million veterans budget package includes additional investments in state veterans’ homes and services, suicide prevention efforts, and pension credits for National Guard members deployed for state active duty.
 A key element of last year’s DFL agenda, paid family and medical leave, will continue to move forward. A compromise was reached to cap the payroll tax funding the program at 1.1 percent instead of 1.2 percent. The current rate is 0.88 percent. The benefit is scheduled to take effect in 2026.
 Pension improvements for teachers and public safety officers, including lower early retirement penalties and cost-of-living adjustments.
 A strengthened ignition interlock law for repeat DWI offenders.
 Closure of the aging Stillwater Correctional Facility, included in a broader public safety bill, though some lawmakers expressed frustration that the decision was made without full legislative involvement.

Big bills remain
The two largest pieces of the state budget, education and health, are also the most politically difficult.
The House passed its K-12 education finance bill, but the Senate had not even debated its version before the deadline. That means the two chambers must reconcile significant differences on items such as special education and student transportation. Education alone accounts for about one-third of the state’s general fund budget.
Some urgency did emerge around funding summer unemployment benefits for school staff. To get that piece through, lawmakers stripped $77 million from the Northern Lights Express passenger rail project, a proposed train between Minneapolis and Duluth, and passed a standalone bill. The rail line has long been viewed as a potential boon for northeastern Minnesota travelers, particularly those without easy access to Twin Cities services or flights.
Sen. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City, unsuccessfully attempted to attach the full $26 billion education budget to that bill as an amendment.
“We can get 40 percent of the state budget done before we get into a special session,” he said.
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, derided Rarick’s ploy, calling the move “sloppy,” “lazy,” “irresponsible,” and “banana pants.”
The bill also provides millions in additional funding for school districts to comply with the state’s READ Act, aimed at improving Minnesota’s lagging literacy outcomes.

Immigrant health care
The budget deal struck last week between Walz and legislative leaders included a controversial compromise – adults who are undocumented immigrants would lose eligibility for MinnesotaCare beginning in 2026, while children would remain covered.
The issue has sparked a revolt among DFL lawmakers, some of whom have said they cannot support the health budget bill unless the provision is removed.
“I believe that undocumented folks should be, are entitled to the same access to health care that all the rest of us are,” said Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton. “So no, I do not support that at all.”
Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, took to the floor Monday, saying, “We will not acquiesce to the Republicans’ cruel agenda of taking things away from people.”
The provision is a GOP priority, and Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson defended its inclusion. “They’re finally having to realize there are constraints on Minnesota taxpayers,” Johnson said. “We’re not an infinite state of money and the ability to pay for whatever projects they want to have.”
Also left unresolved is the budget bill covering human services, which includes funding for elder care and services for Minnesotans with disabilities. Among the items at stake are waiver services that help people with developmental disabilities live independently and support services for seniors aging at home or in long-term care facilities. Advocates and providers have raised concerns about workforce shortages and reimbursement rates that haven’t kept up with inflation.
The Legislature also failed to act on a proposed extension of unemployment insurance benefits for laid-off Iron Range miners. The House passed the bill 132-0 in the session’s final hours, but the Senate adjourned without taking action. The bill would have extended benefits by 26 weeks for approximately 640 miners laid off this spring from Hibbing Taconite and the Minorca Mine in Virginia. “There’s not 640 other jobs for them to go to,” said Rep. Cal Warwas, R-Clinton Township.
Rep. Roger Skraba, R-Ely, said he doubted one of the mines would reopen before the end of the year, when regular benefits would run out. The extension would cost an estimated $15 million.
Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, who is on both the Taxes and Jobs and Labor working groups, said he would continue to advocate for the benefit, as well as additional assistance for area schools.
“From an unemployment benefit extension for laid off steelworkers to seasonal recreational tax changes that will help our rural schools, I will keep fighting for the interest of Northern Minnesota,” he said. “Now, let’s roll up our sleeves, and finish the job.”

Bonding bill
Notably absent from the final flurry of votes was a bonding bill to fund water treatment, roads, bridges, and other public infrastructure. Local governments across the state are hoping for state assistance, but the bonding package didn’t get far enough along to advance. However, support for local infrastructure projects was dwarfed by allocations for major investments in deferred maintenance of state buildings and new construction.
Senate Republicans haven’t signaled whether they’ll support a bonding bill during the special session, and a three-fifths majority is required for passage.
Working group negotiations are expected to continue through mid-week as legislators work to finalize bill language. Walz and legislative leaders hope those efforts will yield enough consensus to allow the special session to wrap up the remaining bills in a single day.
“Against the backdrop of the dysfunction in D.C., this is a pretty remarkable thing to see – the most closely divided Legislature in Minnesota history working together in a fiscally responsible way,” Walz said.
Lawmakers hope to wrap up their work before Memorial Day weekend.
“Trying to figure out how this puzzle fits together is a big chore,” Senate Minority Leader Johnson said.

MPR News and MinnPost contributed to this article