End of the 2021 Session
We left St. Paul around 4:30 Monday afternoon to end the 2021 regular session without passing a budget, without any reforms to emergency powers, but with a budget agreement announced by Gov. Tim Walz, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, and House Speaker Melissa Hortman. he public details on the budget deal announced Monday can be read here.
I’m pleased that two things I have always advocated for – no tax increases and investments in education to support our students’ academic growth and recovery from COVID – seem to be achieved in the deal, but the process on how we got there is not something the legislature should be proud of.
The 2021 Legislature had one job to do, almost five full months to do it, the largest surplus in recent memory plus more federal money flowing in, and yet tax increase demands stood in the way of completing the state budget on time. This session has been the least productive in modern history, with less than a dozen bills getting to the Governor’s desk by the end of session. This creates a situation where important policy issues and sometimes irresponsible spending get lumped into large budget omnibus bills. Constituents lose in this situation with a lack of public transparency and hidden expenditures that aren’t fully vetted.
On top of this, it is truly unfortunate that the Paycheck Protection Plan & Unemployment Insurance tax fixes were held up and now those businesses who received assistance to keep employees on payroll during the pandemic and workers displaced by the pandemic will be paying state taxes on these benefits. While forgiving these from state taxes is something that has been agreed to, the uncertainty has frustrated Minnesotans and it is still only agreed upon in theory. Nothing was passed during the session to address these issues; this is not the way to govern.
Unfortunately, we are now in the same position we were in 2019 – where three people (“The Tribunal”) are given the power and control over finalizing the budget and policy decisions for all Minnesotans.
The legislature— the voice of the people and the policymaking branch of our constitutional government — has been relegated to the backbench for over a year with no end in sight. Not only was this not addressed in the agreement, but the legislature handed the administration what amounts to a line-item policy veto for all agreements that will need to be reached before we are called back into a special session. Minnesotans deserve better than this deal, they deserve to have their voices heard.
I will continue to work with my colleagues – on both sides of the aisle – to address these concerns and finalize a responsible budget that includes the PPP and UI tax conformity, and moves us past the need for Emergency Powers.
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