Ten days remain before the last day of the Minnesota legislative session May 23, 2016. Governor Mark Dayton, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and House Speaker Kurt Daudt met twice in the past week to negotiate an agreement on...more
With just over two weeks of session remaining, the window for Minnesota legislators to pass a final transportation bill, tax bill, bonding bill and supplemental budget bill is closing quickly. Conference committee members...more
The House and Senate focused on their funding bills this week, with each body considering their respective set of supplemental budget recommendations. Legislators spent late nights working through the bills and abundant...more
Thursday, April 21 was the third bill deadline at the Legislature, by which date committees must act favorably upon all major appropriation and finance bills. During the week, committees in both the House and Senate met...more
This week, the Senate DFL majority released their budget targets, setting guidelines for committees to address the $900 million surplus. In their budget targets, $300 million will go toward tax relief. In addition, voluntary...more
The second of three Minnesota legislative committee deadlines arrives tonight at midnight. By this second deadline, committees must act favorably upon a bill that met the first deadline in the other house, or the bill does...more
The first of three Minnesota legislative committee deadlines arrives tonight at midnight. By the first deadline, a committee must act favorably upon a bill in its body of origin or the bill does not move forward. As a result,...more
The Minnesota Legislature had a short week, with no official business on Friday due to their Easter recess. The legislature will return on Tuesday, March 29, at noon. This week, committees continued to hear budget details...more
The Minnesota Legislature had a full schedule of committee hearings and floor sessions this week. Some hearings were already scheduled into the evening. Governor Mark Dayton released his supplemental budget recommendation,...more
The second year of the 89th Session of the Minnesota Legislature began Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Only 10 weeks remain in the brief legislative session. This first week of session highlighted the significant partisan divide with...more
The second year of the 89th Session of the Minnesota Legislature convenes on March 8, 2016. This year’s session is unusually late and will last an atypically short 11 weeks.
The February Forecast released today projects...more
Legislative activity is picking up in St. Paul as the 2016 Minnesota legislative session draws near. The Governor and legislative leaders created several working groups, each with members from the House and Senate, to...more
Minnesota's November budget and economic forecast was released on December 3, 2015, showing a projected $1.9 billion budget surplus for the remainder of the FY 2016-2017 biennium. This is $1 billion above the budget surplus...more
After 10 years of budget deficits, the Minnesota Legislature convened in January to set the state’s biennial budget with a projected $1.9 billion surplus. This surplus spurred hope of an orderly session and predictions of tax...more
5/31/2015
/ Bonds ,
Budget Surplus ,
Chemicals ,
Children's Products ,
Dentists ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Drug & Alcohol Abuse ,
Governor Dayton ,
Infrastructure ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Pollinators ,
State Budgets ,
Tax Cuts ,
Tax Reform ,
Wetlands
During the final 10 days of the 2015 session, Governor Dayton, Senate Majority Leader Bakk and Speaker Daudt met frequently, attempting to reach a final agreement to end the session. Last week, the negotiators agreed to table...more
The focus at the Capitol this week for the Minnesota Legislature has been budget negotiations among Governor Dayton, Senate Majority Leader Bakk and Speaker Daudt. As of Friday morning, only two targets have been released —...more
With the clock running out for the legislature in 2015, members are spending more time in each chamber. Majority leadership from each body has been working with the Governor to find middle ground between gaps in budget plans....more
With committee deadlines out of the way and the last day of the session approaching, the Minnesota House and Senate went to work this week passing omnibus bills on the floor and appointing conference committee members....more
On April 29, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar. The Court held that the First Amendment permits States to restrict judicial candidates’ speech by prohibiting them from personally soliciting...more
All week, both chambers and their respective finance committees have been working toward tonight’s third deadline of the session, by which committees must act favorably on major appropriation bills....more
This week, as the Minnesota Legislature worked on finance bills, Governor Mark Dayton took the opportunity to comment on the House and Senate budget proposals. He criticized both plans for being too low in most regards....more
The legislature returned from a week off and started putting together omnibus finance bills, which must be out of committees by April 24. With just over a month left in the session, the pace of activity will continue to...more
With policy committee deadlines out of the way, Minnesota state legislators return this week to focus on passing finance bills, working in conference committees, and putting together a bonding bill. ...more
Today marks the end of the second deadline week at the Capitol. Non-finance bills which have not been heard in all required House and Senate policy committees by midnight tonight may not be acted upon. ...more
Today was the first of three committee deadlines during the legislative session. By midnight tonight, bills must be approved by policy committees in the House or Senate. ...more