Minnesota Legislature pushes off 2024 to-do list for final two days

The new Minnesota state flag flies alongside the Quadriga on May 13, 2024. Photo by Andrew VonBank/Minnesota House Public Information Services.

The Minnesota Legislature’s Democratic majority has about two days left to pass a long list of bills that could affect millions of Minnesotans: funding public works projects, increasing pay for Uber and Lyft drivers and legalizing sports betting. 

The fate of these high-profile bills remained unclear as of Friday afternoon because lawmakers took little action, instead debating for four hours in the House a bill to put the Equal Rights Amendment on the 2026 ballot and approving one conference committee report. Republicans throughout the week have filibustered the Democrats’ legislation to delay a vote on the ERA bill, which would make abortion a state constitutional right and provide protections for LGBTQ Minnesotans.

Republicans tried to force concessions from Democrats on a slew of proposals through the only leverage they have — saying they won’t vote for an infrastructure package, which requires a supermajority since it’s funded with borrowed money. But Democratic leaders shrugged off that threat, noting they passed a $2.6 billion infrastructure package last year.

“If Republicans are conditioning their support for a bonding bill on denying civil rights to trans Minnesotans, then we won’t have a bonding bill,” House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said during a Thursday press conference.

Since it’s a non-budget year, lawmakers don’t technically have to pass any legislation this year.

Gov. Tim Walz told reporters on Friday afternoon that he believed the threats over an infrastructure package were “hyperbole” and that lawmakers regularly make these doomsday statements in the final hours. 

“I don’t know if you want to stop projects in your home district, you want to stop water treatment plants, public safety events — things like that — because you’re unwilling to have Minnesotans vote on a piece of civil rights legislation,” Walz said.

The House on late Friday afternoon tabled debate on the ERA bill and moved onto conference committee reports to send to the Senate, which only met briefly for a floor session on Friday.

Hortman said on Thursday the Senate had enough votes to pass the House’s ERA language, but Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, told reporters Friday that the Senate Democrats are waiting to see what version of the bill ends up passing off the House floor.

“Until we know what is coming to us, we haven’t committed our votes. But we have had very very many discussions about the importance of what I think is a new and modern ERA, one that reflects our values, our freedoms and what it means to be a Minnesotan,” Murphy said. 

In the final hours of the session last year, the Senate passed an ERA bill that didn’t include the reproductive rights language, and the House said it ran out of time last to consider it.

Murphy told reporters that she was meeting with Republicans on Friday to continue discussions on the infrastructure bill.

The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities in a statement on Friday said it’s concerned lawmakers won’t pass an infrastructure bill or additional funding for emergency medical services — two of greater Minnesota’s top priorities this session.

“Failure to pass an infrastructure package and EMS funding will leave a lot of local elected officials around the state wondering what the heck has the Legislature been doing for the past four months,” the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities said. “No bonding bill or EMS funding would leave Greater Minnesota with very little to cheer about from this session.”

This year’s tax bill is also in limbo. House and Senate members haven’t met to hash out differences in the two chambers’ tax bills in days, and it’s unclear when they will meet again. House Tax Chair Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether she and Senate Tax Chair Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, have come to an agreement on a final bill.

When asked if a tax bill will pass the Legislature this year, Walz said, “I don’t think so.” 

Walz’s proposal to allow families to receive their child tax credit in installments throughout the year is in the tax bill, and he said he’s hoping the child tax changes pass, but “we’ll see.”

The tax bill also includes a provision that would force corporations that make $250 million or more in gross domestic sales to disclose more about their finances.

A bill to legalize sports betting is still up in the air, but lawmakers may be close to an agreement. Though whether there is enough time to pass a sports betting bill remains unknown.

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