New deadline missed for Minnesota budget agreement

Yahoo

22-05-2025

The Brief
Legislators missed the 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline set by leaders for finishing all the bills making up the Minnesota state budget.
Almost all the negotiations are now happening privately and the details are not very public either.
Meanders will insert themselves into negotiations now and they hope that helps them finish everything by next week so Gov. Walz can call a special session.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The latest deadline at the Capitol has come and gone.
Getting closer
Teams were supposed to finish negotiating the remaining bills by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
They got closer, but not especially close.
One legislative leader told FOX 9 that three out of the remaining 11 big omnibus bills may be finished.
Little in public
But almost everything now is happening behind closed doors and the whole process is a lot different from how it happened during the regular session.
The House and Senate chambers are empty.
The only bill being negotiated in the daylight is the tax bill and a lot of its provisions are coming directly from the governor and legislative leaders from both parties.
Tax increase
That includes an increase on the cannabis sales tax from 10% to 15%.
Cannabis advocates rallied against the change in front of the governor's office on Wednesday afternoon.
They argue the increase shouldn't come before the state even gives out licenses, and they think it'll especially hurt medical patients, who will often shift to buying recreational cannabis because of the quality and convenience.
But that tax is part of the global agreement signed last week, and it seems to be holding in the only public meetings.
What's next
The next step, according to leaders, is for the working groups to start meeting with a tribunal of leaders from both parties and the governor.
They'll be directly involved in most of the negotiations from here on out.
As for a timeline: They plan to work right through the Memorial Day weekend and if things go well, they could wrap it all up next week and that's when the governor would call for what they hope will be a short special session.