End of Special Session Update from Rep. Allen

• Sunsets the free healthcare program for adult undocumented immigrants beginning on January 1, 2026, and closes enrollment for adults now. 

Health & Children and Families Finance 

• Funds rural EMS and hospitals, stops massive fee/surcharge hikes on healthcare, and increases protections for child safety.  

Commerce Finance 

• Blocks healthcare mandates and continues to fund reinsurance. 

Human Services Finance 

• Addresses potential fraud by billing practices for substance use disorder providers based on length of service time and rejects costly shifts to counties in waiver rate exceptions.  

Education Finance and Policy 

• Reaffirms our commitment to educational choice by protecting non-public pupil aid and enshrines the Science of Reading language into standards, a proven strategy for literacy. Blocks cuts to non public schools.

• Provides meaningful relief for schools that have been struggling with the many mandates that were passed last year, which have pulled funds and attention away from students in the classroom. 

Transportation Finance 

• There were no cuts to state road construction and maintenance; instead, the bill makes cuts to expensive and inefficient train lines such as the Blue Line. 

Tax Bill 

• No tax increases for Minnesotan families, specifically in income tax rates or the general sales tax rate. We were able to protect LGA and CPA. 

Bonding GO and Cash Bills 

• Provides $206 million for clean water and drinking water projects as well as $86.5 million for roads and bridges, including funding for projects in Greater Minnesota.
• It blocks political handouts, which are typically included in bonding bills and take away from critical funding for roads, bridges, clean water, etc. 
• This bill specifically allocates money for the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf and Blind in Faribault.

Environment Finance 

• Reduces fishing license fees for disabled veterans, makes the bass fishing season continuous, and includes meaningful permitting reform.  The permitting reform will modify the current MPCA permitting process to make it easier for businesses to navigate with certainty, from firm timelines to clarifying the process for expedited permitting. 

Data Center Bill

• Creates a "Very Large Customer" class with the PUC, requires high-water-use data centers (100M+ gallons/year) to submit preapplication info to the DNR, imposes a new fee on large-scale centers to support the Energy and Conservation Account, and extends the IT sales tax exemption to 35 years.

Higher Education Finance 

• Makes appropriate cuts to address the $239M shortfall in the State Grant Program and does so while minimizing the impact on individual students. 

Labor Bill 

• The greatest provision in this bill is the UI extension for our miners. Additionally, it includes language pertaining to non-competes and telecom installers.  

Overall, we were able to secure ZERO tax hikes for Minnesotan families, despite the Democrat's efforts to raise taxes by another $8 billion. Additionally, we made major progress towards addressing fraud, waste, and abuse, with provisions spread out across many of the bills. And another key highlight is the fact that we secured funding for rural EMS and hospitals, which have been struggling with rising costs and mandates in the past few years. Considering the tied House chamber and only a 1-cote Democrat majority in the Senate, we came out with some legislation that will seriously benefit and protect Minnesotan families, schools, small businesses, farmers, and more.