Lawmakers Working To Reach Last-Minute Budget Deal
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — Minnesota lawmakers are racing against the clock to pass a $45 billion dollar, two-year state budget.
The 2017 Legislative session is legally required to adjourn by midnight Monday night.
And so far, lawmakers are making little progress. Lawmakers are meeting late into the night in a rare Sunday session, with lots of pressure to wrap up their work.
The clock is not the friend of the Minnesota Legislature at this point. Lawmakers spent all day Sunday waiting for actual bills to come their way. Top leaders are telling us they need agreement Sunday night on most or all of these bills in order to physically write them, check them for mistakes, and post them online or print them.
And some of them, like the complicated health care bill, will take about 12 hours to do that.
Sunday night, the Democratic Governor and Republicans leaders who control the House and Senate are meeting non-stop behind closed doors. And they say they are close.
There's not a lot of time left, but there are some big ticket funding items beginning to move.
Sunday night, the House and Senate are debating a bill to pay for environmental programs, including a requirement for farmers to provide plant buffers around water on their land. The state will not enforce that law for six to eight months.
Earlier Sunday, lawmakers debated the Higher Education Bill. That includes a small increase in funding for colleges and universities, but angry Democrats say it's not enough to stop a tuition hike at the University of Minnesota.
"The Republican party, the Minnesota GOP is raising the tuition at the University of Minnesota by starving them for funds," Sen. Jason Isaacson of Shoreview said.
"The Minnesota GOP, the State Senate, the House of Representatives, cannot raise tuition at the University of Minnesota. The only ones who can raise tuition at the University of Minnesota is the Board of Regents," Sen. Michelle Fischbach, higher education finance and policy chair, said.
Inside the closed-door meetings, members are telling us after a couple of bumpy weeks there is "lots of progress... with the end in sight." That's different from previous years' sessions, which ended in chaos and anger.
Whether they will make it by midnight tomorrow is an open question.
If the budget bills aren't passed by the deadline Monday night, it would be up to Dayton to call a special session. If agreements remain elusive in the special session, lawmakers risk a government shutdown.
The last government shutdown happened in 2011.