Local Lawmakers Speak About the Marathon Finish to 2021 Legislative Session

(KNSI) – Lawmakers are back home from the Capitol after passing the last of Minnesota’s budget bills.

The state’s two-year operating budget is around $52 billion, and it took a special session to get the budget passed.

Cold Spring Representative Lisa Demuth says one of the most significant sticking points was getting the governor to end his emergency powers.

“We knew we would have to come back in mid-June because our governor has continued to extend those emergency powers. We’ve been brought back in mid-month for the last year if we weren’t already in session. The good news is those emergency powers did end, and we voted on that. And so those are done,” but, she adds there’s a bit of a caveat.

Lawmakers were supposed to finish the Legislative session by May 17th.

Demuth says even though the governor’s emergency powers have ended, she warned an emergency could be redeclared thanks to an amendment passed on the tax bill.

“For COVID-19, there could be a public health disaster response, allowing our Commissioner of Human Services or the Commissioner of Health to declare a public health disaster if they needed to. And it would also expire then whenever they thought it should expire.”

The provision allows the commissioners to keep testing and vaccine authority.

Demuth says when the coronavirus first emerged, she agreed with the emergency powers for the first couple of weeks to ensure that hospitals didn’t get overwhelmed and there was enough personal protection equipment.

“As time went on, as we realized, yes, the virus can be severe. It is a real thing. I lost people that I knew to it. But I didn’t think that our state needed to be in a state of emergency.”

Demuth says she was pleased with the passage of the Education Bill that includes a historic investment in the education bill of $1.2 billion over four years, the most significant increase in 15 years.

She also secured $1.2 million to build phase three of the Rocori Trail.

St. Cloud Senator Aric Putnam completed his first year in the Legislature and said the process worked how it should.

“I was impressed by the end result when it came to budget bills. A lot of the stuff that came out of the Senatenwasn’t great. A lot of the stuff that came out of the House was not great, but the end result actually was, by and large, I think, pretty good. I mean, it’s a result of a compromise and divided Legislature, it’s not supposed to make everybody happy.”

Putnam says he didn’t think their work needed to come down to the wire.

“They didn’t have to be late nights but they were which was kind of unfortunate. Someone told me a little while ago when I first got there, why sessions go so long and they said well, everything has been said but not everyone has said it. So, that kept us there a little bit longer than maybe one would have hoped.”

Other highlights in the approved budget include $70 million in COVID-19 relief for small businesses across the state, $597 million to support child care businesses and increase access to affordable, quality child care; and $250 million in direct financial support to Minnesota’s essential workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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