Some Lawmakers Aren’t Optimistic That All Budget Bills Will Get Done Before Deadline

(KNSI) – The Minnesota Legislative Session is coming down to the end of overtime, and some lawmakers are more optimistic than others that the work will get finished before a government shutdown.

Members of the Minnesota House and Senate have been in Special Session since June 14 after Democrat and Republicans couldn’t hammer out a projected $52-billion operating budget by the mandated deadline.

Lawmakers have three funding bills left, including a State Government and Veterans Bill, a Tax Bill, and the Public Safety and Judiciary proposals.

St. Cloud Representative Dan Wolgamott says there’s still plenty of work to be done on those three bills.

“But we’ve you know, we’ll deal with a lot of amendments. And we’ll deal with a lot of debate. So we’re not, we’re not totally out of the woods yet, but the lightest at the end of the tunnel. And we are in a strong position to be able to prevent a government shutdown and pass all of our budget bills into law. ”

Wolgamott says he expects to be in St. Paul through Wednesday before the final bills are passed.

The lawmaker says it’s been a tough battle at the Capital, but he’s happy with the accomplishments.

“I’m proud of the bipartisan work between the Democrats in the House and the Republicans in the Senate to work through our differences and pass a bipartisan budget that fulfills the needs of Minnesotans. It’s been a grueling couple of weeks, but we’re getting things through the process.”

St. Cloud Representative Tama Theis says Republicans have largely been left out of governing during the Special Session.

“There’s a lot of frustration. None of our amendments get taken. And when are we ever going to finish? I’m ready to be done. We’ve been here since the 14th, and it feels like we haven’t done anything.”

Theis says many of the reforms agreed to by Legislative Leaders in the public safety bill would go against what Minnesota already has in place.

“And I can’t do that because I look at what St. Cloud has got going on. And we have the type of thing that everybody says they want. We have the community agreement. We have the cop house. We have a whole plethora of other things. And that’s basically what they say they want. But yet, when we talk about the Cop House on the floor, I get a no. People say that the cops show up in their uniforms, including their guns. How is that a bad thing for people to see? Cops are not just shooting people randomly.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Monday announced he would be taking executive action to pass some police reform measures.

The executive order includes:
Restrictions on the use of no-knock warrants.
Increasing mental health response in crisis calls.
Reforming civil asset forfeiture by law enforcement.
Providing body cameras for law enforcement at the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Public Safety Natural Resources.

The bill will also overhaul how Minnesota enforces safety standards and reforms the use of force guidelines in jails and prisons.

Theis says she’s 50/50 on whether the lawmakers will pass all the bills they need to by the July 1 deadline.

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