Welcome to the 2022 Minnesota Legislative Session!

Minnesota legislators returned to St. Paul, either in-person or virtually, on Monday, January 31. House committees immediately dove into work, with most committees meeting for informational updates throughout the week, while the Senate only held one or two committee hearings each day. See below for brief updates on the Top 5 most important things to know as session starts.

Musical (Leadership) Chairs

Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka stepped down from his top post during the interim due to the fact that he is challenging Governor Tim Walz in November’s election. This began a chain of leadership changes, as then-Senate President Jeremy Miller was selected by his caucus as the new leader, and Sen. David Osmek was selected to fill the vacant Senate President position. Sen. Michelle Benson, chair of the important Health and Human Services Policy and Finance committee, is also running for governor, and announced that she was relinquishing her chair position in order to devote more time to her campaign. Sen. Paul Utke was selected to be the new chair of that committee.

Not to be left out, Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent announced during the interim that she would not be seeking re-election, and that she was stepping down as her caucus’s leader. Sen. Melisa Lopez Franzen was elected by her caucus to be the new Minority Leader.

How to Spend More Than $7 billion

With a projected budget surplus of more than $7 billion, this legislative session is being viewed by many as a second budget year. The state passed a two-year budget in 2021, and with a surplus, the Legislature has no requirement to make any budget changes. In spite of this, House and Senate caucuses have discussed numerous ways of spending at least some of the surplus, and Governor Walz released a supplemental budget proposal last week.

Unemployment Insurance

Most agree that one way to use some of the surplus is to repay the unemployment insurance debt. Since March 2020, when COVID hit in force and caused businesses to lay off employees, the state unemployment insurance fund was hit hard. The federal government allowed Minnesota to borrow to replenish the fund. However, the federal government is seeking repayment of those funds. Federal American Rescue Program (“ARP”) funds may be used to repay the federal government, and virtually every other state has used ARP funds for that purpose. If the funds aren’t replaced, automatic tax increases will blink on for businesses at historically high rates. Gov. Walz has proposed to fully replenish the fund. Legislative leaders have universally pledged to pay the dollars back quickly and replenish the fund.

Frontline Worker Pay

In the 2021 session, $250 million was appropriated to be paid to workers who had to go to in-person work despite the risks of COVID. Over the summer, a working group was tasked with making the final determinations as to how the money was allocated—which workers would enjoy this benefit and how much each would receive. An agreement was never reached, as Democrats felt that additional funding was needed to cover all the deserving workers, while Republicans felt that a narrow group of workers, consisting primarily of health care workers and first responders, were all that should receive the funds. They argued that, in order for the bonus to be meaningful, the total number of workers needed to be limited. Expect continued negotiations on this issue. Gov. Walz and House Democrats are proposing to raise the amount to be appropriated to closer to $1 billion to cover more workers. To date, Republicans have resisted calls to spend more.

2022 Calendar

Here are key dates to know for the upcoming session:

• February 15: Last day for Legislature and Governor to agree to redistricting maps, otherwise court panel decides
• February 28: February state budget forecast expected to be released (final forecast that Legislature will use for this session)
• March 25: First deadline (bills through policy committees in one body)
• April 1: Second deadline (bills that met first deadline to pass committees in other body)
• April 8: Third deadline (all major appropriation and finance bills to pass out of committees)
• April 9-18: Legislative break
• April 19: Legislature resumes
• May 23: Last possible day of session