Ewald at the Capitol/December 4

Session 2021: On the Horizon

The Minnesota Legislature’s 2021 regular session begins on Jan. 5, 2021. Preparations for the new biennium are underway, including setting up the new committee structure. Committee topics and chairs are being finalized by both the House and Senate. The House will have 30 committees, and the Senate will have 29. This is a decrease for the House, which had 37 committees for the 2019-2020 biennium, but an increase for the Senate, which had 21.

Some of the new House committees include Preventing Homelessness, Preventative Health Policy and Behavioral Health Policy. New committees in the Senate include Human Services Licensing and Housing Finance & Policy. Also new for this biennium are the House and Senate committees on redistricting, which occurs following each census.

Committee membership should be released soon.

Budget News

Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) has released the November Budget and Economic Forecast. The previously projected deficit for the current budget cycle ending June 30, 2021, has changed to a budget surplus of $641 million. The budget cycle associated with the 2022-2023 biennium is currently projected at a $1.27 billion deficit.

The 2021 session is the first year of a new biennium, which is also referred to as the "budget year". Legislators will be tasked with balancing the state’s budget with the currently forecasted deficit for the following biennium. Another budget forecast will be conducted in February, which will be ultimately be used as the most recent data for legislators to make budgetary decisions for 2022-2023.

Session 2021: Setting the Political Landscape

Minnesota election results have now officially been certified, which confirms that the state will continue to be home to the only split legislature in the country. The DFL will remain in the majority in the House with a margin of 70-64 and the Republicans will hold their majority in the Senate.

However, since the election, things in the Senate have changed. Two Iron Range DFL members, Sen. Tom Bakk and Sen. David Tomassoni, have split from their caucus completely, and now identify as Independents. So, rather than a 34-33 split in the Senate that was determined by the election, there is now a 34-31-2 split.

Both Independent senators will be committee chairs for the upcoming biennium. It is unusual for members of a minority party to hold gavels. Sen. Bakk will chair the Capital Investment and Sen. Tomassoni will chair the Higher Education committee.

In the House, the caucus that split from the Republicans last biennium will continue to exist this biennium as well, and they have expanded. Previously, the New Republican Caucus contained four Republican legislators. Now, new member-elect Erik Mortensen (55A) will become the fifth member. In contrast to the Senate’s margin, New Republican Caucus members still identify as Republicans, so the House split remains at 70-64.

Special Session VII

Special Session VII needs to occur by mid-December in order to renew the governor’s peacetime emergency. No specific date is set yet, but December 14 has been suggested as a possibility. Both the governor and the legislature are hard at work in preparation. Some type of COVID-19 relief package is in the works. Gov. Walz has said he hopes the package will be $300-600 million in size.

Legislators will need to come together quickly to agree on what to include in a relief package so that it can pass in the next special session and aid can get out by the end of December. So far, the governor and DFL members have said they will prioritize aid for low-income families, unemployment benefits and business grants in their version of a package. Republicans have said that they would like the relief to go entirely to businesses.