Latest news with #Democratic-Farmer-Labor-majority
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With no final MN budget deal in sight special session now likely in June
As the Minnesota Legislature blew its deadline to pass a $66 billion budget last week, legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz said they hoped lawmakers would return to the Capitol for a special session to enact new state spending by the end of May. That's looking less likely by the day as disagreements over a budget framework deal reached by leadership continue to slow progress. As of Wednesday, lawmakers working in mostly private groups hadn't produced any major public progress on two-thirds of state general fund spending — K-12 education, health and human services. If there isn't a state budget by June 1, thousands of state employees will start getting layoff notices warning of a potential government shutdown on July 1. Lawmakers must pass a budget by the end of June or the government runs out of funding. 'Even though it's slower than we would like, things are going well,' Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth said at her last availability with the media last Thursday. Nearly a week later, there had been little extra progress. There was hope that there might be some kind of deal by the end of Memorial Day weekend. Now it looks like lawmakers won't return until next week at the earliest. Even if they reached a deal on all budget items on Thursday, final preparations might take at least 24 hours after bills are posted. The governor said he won't call a special session until all legislation is ready to go. There are a few areas of spending the Senate and House passed at the end of session — public safety, agriculture, housing and veterans affairs bills passed. But the biggest parts of the state budget remain unsettled. Deals on taxes, transportation and energy remain elusive as well. A 'global deal' on the budget announced two weeks ago by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-majority Senate, DFL-GOP tied House and the governor has been troubled by disagreements over finer details. There has also been public opposition to a provision cutting state-funded health care for adults in the U.S. without legal status. DFLers ranging from self-described progressives to moderates say they oppose the change, which Republicans asked for in top-level negotiations. Opponents gathered outside the governor's office in the Capitol to protest the cuts on Tuesday, Forum News Service reported. While they oppose the cuts, Walz, House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and Senate DFL Majority Leader Erin Murphy have indicated they'll support them in order to prevent interruption of other state services. It's hard to tell how close members are to a deal. Discussions have mostly been happening in private 'working groups' on various budget areas rather than committees. One of the few groups that is public is working on taxes, which has shed some light on the difficulties in the process. Lawmakers working on the taxes bill weren't in complete agreement last week about how the agreement will shape their decision-making. Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, said they'd seek further guidance from leaders on how to proceed. And this Tuesday, she showed frustration with House lawmakers who didn't appear to be ready to move forward with their own offer. 'Let it be known to our leaders that the House cannot even accept their own proposal,' said Rest, the Senate Taxes chair, as the committee went into recess. Unique dynamics of co-leaders from both parties in the House working with the DFL majority in the Senate have complicated negotiations. The last time the House was tied was in 1979. Murphy called the House a 'two-headed monster.' Working groups have already passed their leadership-imposed May 21 deadline to finish work on bills, so leaders from both parties said they are getting more closely involved. It's possible they could take control of bills from committee chairs. What Minnesota laws and policies changed after George Floyd? Here are 9 topics Seeking budget deal by end of May, MN lawmakers work Memorial Day weekend Inmate rights groups demand say in Stillwater prison closure plan Matt Ehling: This open-meeting law change is a problem. Undo it, legislators MN Legislature: Budget negotiations go behind closed doors
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minnesota Senate OKs new anti-fraud office, but much work remains
A proposal to create a new oversight office for state government agencies passed with overwhelming bipartisan backing Thursday in the Minnesota Senate. But with time dwindling in the legislative session, it's unclear whether the bill will reach the governor this year — or if he'll sign it. Support for a state Office of Inspector General has gained traction at the Legislature this session amid calls for greater oversight after the state lost hundreds of millions of dollars to pandemic-era fraud schemes. In the Feeding Our Future scandal, for instance, prosecutors have alleged that a group of scammers used nonprofits to make off with about $250 million from a federally funded school meals program, claiming reimbursements from the state for millions of meals never served. A total of 70 individuals have been charged in the case with the ringleader found guilty earlier this year. If the Senate bill becomes law, a new state oversight office would be able to shut down payments when there is a credible suspicion of fraud and conduct an investigation. The office would have subpoena powers, and the Senate on Thursday adopted an amendment adding law enforcement capabilities. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor-majority Senate passed its inspector general bill 60-7, with some DFL holdouts concerned about how state fraud enforcement efforts might interfere with federal benefits like Medicaid. They also had concerns about due process for organizations suspected of fraud. Similar proposals exist in the tied House, though they have not gained the same level of traction with just under two weeks remaining in the legislative session. DFL Gov. Tim Walz has said he supports efforts to combat fraud, though it's not completely clear where he stands on the Senate bill. At an related Thursday bill signing, he said he's open to the idea but questioned whether it was the most efficient way to combat fraud. Addressing government fraud has been a politically potent issue at the Capitol this year, with Republicans and DFL lawmakers alike sponsoring bills to prevent future large-scale waste, fraud and abuse in government. House Republicans created a new committee specifically aimed at highlighting and addressing the issue, and have advanced several proposals aimed at fighting problems in the future. Democrats say they've already taken significant action and that the perpetrators of Feeding Our Future and other schemes are being held accountable in court. They point to a 2023 bill approving new oversight staff at state agencies, and Walz's January executive order creating a fraud investigation unit at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. That hasn't stopped a bipartisan push in the Senate to do more. The lead sponsors on the Senate inspector general bill are Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, and Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine. They argue that while some agencies have their own oversight offices, Minnesota would benefit from an office insulated from politics with its own enforcement capabilities. Right now, governor-appointed commissioners appoint their agencies' inspectors general. 'We have already made significant strides in fighting fraud in Minnesota, but today filled a gap that was desperately missing,' Gustafson told reporters at a press briefing following the vote. 'We needed to be able to be more proactive. For years, we've been able to do quite a bit of fraud prevention work, but we are always still a little bit reactive.' Minnesota already has a nonpartisan Office of Legislative Auditor, which conducts independent oversight investigations of state agencies and programs. While its work is valuable to understanding problems in state government, it often identifies them after they've occurred, Gustafson said. Some Minnesota government agencies, like the Department of Education, have their own oversight officials. Under the bill, they'd be shifted to the central Office of Inspector General. There'd be about 30 staff funded by just under $9 million. As part of a compromise, the Department of Human Services would be the primary authority on investigating Medicaid fraud, Gustafson said. That came due to agency concerns about how a state fraud investigation might interfere with federal rules. Backers say the new office would be insulated from politics by requiring a supermajority to confirm leadership and giving it its own enforcement powers. Under the Senate bill, an advisory panel composed of an equal number of DFL and GOP lawmakers would recommend a list of appointees to the governor. Once the governor chooses someone to fill the position, they would need to be confirmed by a three-fifths majority of the Senate. While many hailed the bill's passage as a bipartisan accomplishment, holdouts said they had concerns about due process in cases where the office decided to cut off funding for suspected fraud. They also had concerns about how enforcement actions might interact with federal programs,. Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, said state actions could lead to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services interrupting funding for programs in Minnesota. 'It's going to make headlines, but you didn't do your due diligence,' he said ahead of the vote. 'Although it's a great front page of a newspaper article, it's not ready for prime time. Vote no.' The state Department of Human Services had raised concerns about this with lawmakers in the past, and, for Hoffman and others, the bill in its present shape didn't do enough to address them. 'I thought that things were clear — that that we needed to be careful about how we grant a new entity authority over programs that affect vulnerable people in our state,' said Sen. Melissa Wiklund, DFL-Bloomington, the chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Backers said their amendments to the bill on Thursday addressed those concerns in part by requiring a federal response to the state before it proceeds with enforcement actions. The Senate's inspector general bill is just one of several fraud-related measures moving through the Legislature this year. Others include a GOP-backed proposal to create stricter reporting requirements for fraud in state agencies and new protections for whistleblowers. The last day of session is May 19. Ethics panel deadlocks on complaint against Minnesota Senate President Letters: 'Let's not make it harder to learn,' Walz wrote. A private school principal responds. Debate on unemployment benefits for school workers derails key MN budget piece St. Paul, MN Wild trim Xcel Center's state request from $400M to $50M Minnesota loosens distance exemption on state employee return to office order
