Minnesota lawmakers continue to finish work behind the scenes, layoff notices go to most state workers soon if they don't pass budget

CBS News

3 days ago

Minnesota lawmakers continued their behind-the-scenes work on Tuesday as they eye a partial government shutdown next month if they don't complete the next two-year state budget by July 1.
Most state employees will receive layoff notices next Monday if a special session approving those spending plans isn't over by then, Gov. Tim Walz's office said.
Walz won't officially call lawmakers back to the capitol until all of the remaining bills are ready to go. Lawmakers have been in mostly private meetings to make that happen, finding agreement and then sending it to the revisor's office for drafting.
Key lawmakers have been meeting in "working groups" since the May 20, after the regular session ended, to sort out the details of each unifinished bill. Some broader agreements and actual proposals are posted on the Legislature's website, including a K-12 spending package.
If they don't complete their work by the deadline at the end of the month, state services and programs would only partially shut down because some parts of the budget did pass before adjournment last month, including funding for the courts, attorney general's office, and agriculture and veterans departments. State workers in those agencies would be held harmless.
The last time there was a government shutdown was in 2011. Four years ago in 2021, lawmakers in a divided capitol narrowly avoided one, passing the remaining parts of the budget June 30 during a special session.
DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy told WCCO Sunday she hopes there will be a special session this week, but legislative leaders and key negotiators have blown past other self-imposed deadlines the last few weeks.
What's unclear is how the Legislature will approve a part of a budget deal between legislative leaders and the governor that would remove undocumented immigrant adults from a state program providing health care coverage, which is sparking outcry among several DFL lawmakers.
Murphy has said it needs to be a stand-alone bill, while GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth wants it to be part of a broader health package.