Here’s what did and did not pass at the Minnesota Legislature this year

The Minnesota Legislature just wrapped up one of the most contentious and unpredictable legislative sessions in state history.

Throughout the last several months, the legislature has endured shifting majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, two senators facing criminal charges, a legal dispute over what constitutes a House quorum, and an unprecedented multi-week boycott by the House DFL.

After much of the initial tumult subsided, the state legislature ended up being more closely divided than ever before. The House was evenly split between Republicans and Democrats (67-67), and the Senate had a one-vote DFL majority (34-33).

Despite it all, lawmakers managed to pass a balanced budget as required by the Minnesota Constitution. On Monday, the state legislature approved the final omnibus bills that make up the state’s new, two-year $66 billion budget.

Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign all of those omnibus bills into law in the coming days.

Most notable is how much smaller this new budget is than Minnesota’s previous budget. In 2023, Democrats controlled all of state government and passed a record $72 billion state budget. As a result, Minnesota was facing a looming multi-billion dollar budget deficit.

However, the $6 billion cut from the previous state budget to the new one represents a dramatic curb in spending and will significantly decrease the projected deficit. Republicans have championed this achievement as “the largest spending cut in Minnesota history.”

In addition to codifying Minnesota’s new budget, the omnibus bills that were recently passed contain many new policy provisions that will govern Minnesota. As such, Alpha News has compiled a list of the major issues that passed and did not pass this year.

What passed this year:

• A ban on illegal alien adults enrolling in MinnesotaCare
• An increase of the cannabis tax from 10% to 15%
• Repeal of electricity tax exemption for data centers
• A reduction of the Paid Family and Medical Leave tax from 1.2% to 1.1%
• Expansion of unemployment benefits to iron ore miners in Greater Minnesota
• Repeal of abortion-related grants
• Defunding the planned Northern Lights Express railway
• Correction to state law that would have inadvertently banned manufacturing of new keys

What did not pass this year:

• Creation of a sales tax on legal, accounting, and brokerage services
• A reduction of the sales tax from 6.875% to 6.800%
• Creation of an excise tax on social media companies
• Repeal of government aid to nonpublic students
• Legislation that would legalize sports gambling
• Creation of a statewide Office of the Inspector General to investigate fraud
• A new tax bracket applied to individuals earning more than $250,000
• A bill that would ban localities from being sanctuary jurisdictions for illegal aliens

Hank Long contributed to this report

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