Legislature Reaches Full Complement— For about three days this week, all 201 legislative seats, 134 House members and 67 Senators, were filled for the first time in 2025. The week began with David Gottfried, the winner of the 40B special election, being sworn into the House on Monday. Gottfried’s swearing in brought the House to ...
DFL Wins 40B Special Election The most important event impacting the State Capitol this week occurred in parts of Roseville and Shoreview, where DFLer David Gottfried defeated Republican Paul Wikstrom by almost 6,000 votes in Tuesday’s District 40B special election. Gottfried is expected to be sworn in on Monday, March 17, at which time the ...
February Forecast Shows Worsening Budget Outlook Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) delivered the delayed February budget and economic forecast yesterday. While MMB projects a $456 million surplus for the FY 2026-27 biennium, this projected surplus is now $160 million lower than estimates from the November Forecast. In a statement, MMB said the “budget outlook has been ...
Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) delivered the delayed February budget and economic forecast today. While MMB projects a $456 million surplus for the FY 2026-27 biennium, this projected surplus is now $160 million lower than estimates from the November forecast. In a statement, MMB said the “budget outlook has been adjusted downward amid significant near-term economic ...
No Committee Deadlines While House and Senate committees met and heard a variety of policy and spending bills this past week, legislative leaders again failed to agree on setting committee deadlines. DFL leaders have been advocating for later deadlines because they expect the House DFL to return to parity with the House Republicans after the ...
Busy Week at the Capitol After a turbulent January and early February, activities at the Legislature returned to normal this past week. The halls of the Capitol were filled with people from all over Minnesota as numerous stakeholders held “Day at the Capitol” events. House and Senate committees met to consider policy and spending bills ...
Back to Business This past week was the first full week that all legislators were present and working in St. Paul. The House of Representatives has been playing catch-up, quickly introducing 786 bills over just three days on the floor. While the Senate has already introduced 1,417 bills, it took them 11 days to do ...
House Organizes (Finally!) After more than three weeks of Democrat members boycotting session to deny quorum and multiple lawsuits playing out in the Court system, the DFL and GOP leaders of the Minnesota House of Representatives penned an agreement on Wednesday night regarding organization of the House. Key points of the agreement, which was approved ...
This morning Judge Eric Tostrud in the District of Minnesota issued an order in the case captioned Minnesota Chamber of Commerce v. John Choi, et al permanently enjoining certain provisions found in Minnesota Statute 211B.15 (“statute”). The enjoined statute was passed by the Minnesota legislature in 2023 and prevented entities who had a single foreign ...
Impact of Minnesota Supreme Court Quorum Decision Last Friday, the Minnesota Supreme Court weighed in on the question of whether 67 or 68 members of the House of Representatives are needed to constitute a quorum, deciding that 68 members must be present for official actions to take place. That decision invalidated all activity that House ...
Courts Alter Political Landscape Just before close of business last Friday (January 16), two separate courts handed down opinions that will impact the 2025 legislative session. One decision, by a District Court in Becker County, granted the request of Senator Nicole Mitchell to postpone her trial for felony burglary charges until after the legislative session. ...
What’s a Quorum? When Secretary of State Steve Simon convened the Minnesota House of Representatives at Noon on Tuesday, January 14, 67 Republicans were in attendance but the 66 DFLers were notably absent. DFLers boycotted the first day over concerns that Republicans would not abide by a previously agreed upon power sharing agreement and that ...