Lawmakers work through the night on state budget

Frustrated and exhausted legislators began shouting and had trouble communicating through the night.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt said significant concessions in Republican’s plans to cut taxes and boost transportation spending shows they are willing to meet the governor in the middle.

Dayton and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka shared a firm handshake and back pat as they departed their joint news conference.

In the final week of session, lawmakers finally passed a bill to bring Minnesota driver’s licenses into compliance with the federal Real ID Act.

Policy provisions remain in the bill, but have been adapted.

Minnesota legislative leaders say they’ll call a special session to finish the state budget after blowing Monday’s midnight deadline. Our hope is still to be done by 7 a.m. tomorrow morning.

The tentative agreement between Democratic Gov. Republicans, meanwhile, defended their bills, saying they represented good compromises that would serve the state well.

The Republican-controlled Legislature and Dayton also averted a stalemate over funding for environmental agencies that was intertwined in a GOP-led attempt to delay by two years the governor’s marquee water quality measure requiring buffer strips between farmland and public waterways, which is set to launch in November.

The bill requests a tuition freeze at the University of Minnesota over the biennium, but due to the university’s constitutional autonomy, the state can not require it to adhere to legislative requests.

Minnesota lawmakers have reached a budget agreement, but will still hold a special session to finalize the details.

The state should receive an increase of over $100 million in state grants funding, “if we’re serious about making college affordable”, Schultz said.

“We’re still at this point, trying to work out the final details about what the final actual bill looks like, but it should, in theory, be better for us than even the original Senate bill”, he said.

Dayton blasted the maneuver as “unconscionable” in a statement and said he would still veto the bill.

The Legislature sent Dayton five budget bills before the regular session came to a close Monday, but the outstanding spending packages eat up 85 percent of the state’s overall budget. Lawmakers were gearing up for an all-night marathon of hearings, debates and votes. The House and Senate planned to work through the night and into the morning to pass the remaining bills. It would be up to Dayton to call lawmakers to return to the Capitol. It’s a response to paid leave ordinances and possible minimum wage increases in Minneapolis, St. Paul and other cities, but Dayton has promised to veto the bill.

Dayton wants a significant investment in public preschool, but Republicans have insisted that any new money be dedicated to low-income students through a scholarship program parents can use at public or private schools. The plans for public schools and health care generally account for about 70 percent of the state’s budget.

The tax bill includes $650 million in tax relief.

For the first time, Minnesotans receiving social security will be able deduct a portion of the taxes they pay on those checks. There’s also $55 million in “student debt relief tax credits” and $129 million in property tax relief for small businesses and farmers. The measure will also freeze cigarette taxes at their current rates.

Resident adult deer licenses would increase from $30 to $34.