Walz, legislative leaders reach $52 billion budget deal
Associated PressST. PAUL, Minn. — The leaders of the Minnesota Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced a $52 billion deal for the state’s next two-year budget on Monday, but lawmakers will have to finish the work next month and difficult negotiations still lie ahead on police accountability and other policy issues. The agreement calls for a balanced two-year budget without raising taxes, while fully exempting from state taxes federal Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses and unemployment insurance benefits that were raised during the pandemic. We found commonality amongst ourselves,” Walz said at a news conference called to announce the deal, which was reached at about 12:15 a.m. Walz, Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka and Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman agreed it was impossible to nail down the language of all the major budget bills and get them passed before Monday night’s constitutional deadline for the regular session to adjourn, so lawmakers will have to go into overtime. “Because there are some things that we think that we can do, but again, some people would want a lot more, some people want less.” Another unresolved policy dispute, which the leaders left up to a different conference committee, is the future of Walz’s proposed “Clean Car” rules, which aim to accelerate the shift to electric cars.