Headlines
Legislature enters final week as budget agreement remains elusive
The legislature enters its final week before adjournment with little progress being made at the leadership level. As expected the initial deadline for reaching targets of May 8 that Governor Walz set as a marker weeks ago came and went without event. Optimists may point out that when it comes to divided government during an election year, agreement on targets often come later than the Monday before adjournment. In 2022 leaders didn’t reach agreement on targets until the Wednesday before adjournment. In 2016 there wasn’t agreement on targets until the Friday before adjournment. So in that sense, there is still plenty of time. When the legislature decides bills will move, they do.
Pessimists would justifiably point out that in 2016 or 2022 those targets were released to House and Senate chairs that had already begun negotiations in conference committees. This year very few bills have reached the conference committee stage, just Commerce, Public Safety Policy, Housing, and a Capitol Safety and Security bill. Other bills still have time to move through a normal process, with the ability to amend bills that are already on the floor and have gone through committee. But that is a far trickier process, existing language can’t just be pulled from a bill that’s already passed one chamber or the other and those bills are subject to amendments, unlike conference committee reports. That’s before mentioning that any type of late agreement will be more difficult to navigate with a tied House. And those agreements that came later in 2016 and 2022 that had the bonus of being negotiated in conference committees? It’s worth noting that those deals largely fell apart, with few bills getting through and getting the Governor’s signature.
That said, progress continues on individual bills. Both chambers continue to move single subject bills. The Governor has signed more bills into law in 2026 than he did during the 2025 session. But the signed bills are typically narrow in scope. More bills are on the way, with agreement between the three caucuses and the Governor on things like the Office of the Inspector General. The Pensions bill received an individual target from the leaders and is currently moving through the process. The Public Safety Policy Conference Committee adopted an agreement. Negotiations continue at the highest leadership level but little is trickling out of those negotiations.
When it comes to county priorities, MICA continues to have positive discussions at the chairs level. Three of our top priorities are included in the Senate Health and Human Services bill, SF4612, but they all cost money and it’s difficult to gauge how viable each of them is individually at this moment when it’s unclear how much that committee has to spend. Each step of the way every legislative leader has said that IT modernization for counties is a priority. Optimism about a bonding bill was higher this past week than it had been in some time, but the fate of the bonding bill is never secure until the final hours of session (if then). Bonding chairs held a press conference this past week and answered questions about the bonding bill, with Senate Capital Investment Chair Sandy Pappas saying she was a “nervous nelly” about the bonding bill.
Omnibus bill tracking
Figuring out exactly what bills match up where and what is traveling and what isn’t, is more challenging than typical this year. MICA is providing an omnibus bill tracker to help, that will be periodically updated on our website. But with such an abnormal session and process, the caveats to this bill tracker are bigger than ever. Language could be moved from one bill to another. An old conference committee left open from 2025 could be re-opened with brand new language in consideration. A supplemental omnibus bill could be added as a last minute amendment to a single subject stand alone bill. That said, the tracker should be a useful tool over the next week to figure out where we are in the process. As it shows, very few bills have advanced to conference committee so far.