Republicans Retain Daudt Seat
Republican Bryan Lawrence of Baldwin Township in Sherburne County won the Minnesota State House Special Election in District 27B to replace former Representative Kurt Daudt, who resigned ahead of the 2024 session to take a new job. Lawrence won by a large margin, garnering 84.5% of the vote, with the DFL opponent, Brad Brown, earning just 15.4%. The Minnesota House now has 70 DFLers and 64 Republicans.
House Passes Tax Fix Bill
By a 130-0 vote, the Minnesota House passed on Monday, March 18, H.F. 3769 which corrects a drafting error in the 2023 Omnibus Tax Bill. This bill retroactively modifies the effective date for the corporate net operating loss limit change from tax year 2023 to tax year 2024. This fix will cost $14.8 million and impact 4,850 taxpayers in 2023, with an average decrease in the tax of $3,050. The bill is expected to pass the Senate next week.
Walz Releases Small Supplement Budget
On Monday, March 18, Governor Tim Walz released his Supplemental Budget recommendations. Capitol insiders were surprised that the Governor proposed only $198.9 million in new FY 2024-2025 spending with a surplus of over $3.7 billion. The Governor’s frugality carried over into the FY 2026-2027 biennium where he recommended $26.6 million in spending, leaving just over $2 billion on the bottom line in the next biennium.
House and Senate Reach 1st and 2nd Committee Deadlines
Like most states across the country, Minnesota’s legislature sets deadlines that bills have to meet in order to advance and eventually become law. On Friday, March 22, at 5:00 pm, the House and Senate will reach the combined 1st and 2nd Committee Deadline. As of this date, committees in both bodies must have acted favorably on any bill that does not have a financial implication. This means that the vast majority of bills in both the House and Senate will be considered “dead” for the year and are unlikely to have a hearing or pass into law.
House and Senate Top 10,000 Bills Introduced
For the first time in state history, the Minnesota House and Senate have introduced more than 10,000 bills in a regular biennial session of the legislature. As of Thursday, March 21, the House reached 5139 bills and the Senate reached 5175 bills, for a total of 10,341 bills. The 2021-2022 House and Senate, in comparison, reached 9,515 bills.
