Big Picture Issues

Economy Continues to Boom                        

Minnesota’s economy continues to roar ahead after the 2020-2021 COVID slowdown.     Minnesota’s unemployment rate fell to 3.1% in January, well below the 3.8% national average. Minnesota Management and Budget announced on Thursday that tax collections in January were 25% greater than projected. Corporate tax revenues were $642 million more than forecast . Since July 1, the start of the State’s fiscal year, tax revenues are $1.5 billion higher than projected. The State already has a projected $7.7 billion surplus based on the November budget forecast. A new budget forecast will be released in the next month that will guide spending and tax decision-making for the remainder of the session.

Quote of the Week:

"The crisis has reached crisis levels!" Department of Human Services testifying on workforce shortages in the health care sector. 

The lack of an agreement by Governor Walz, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka on overall spending targets means the session ended with a whimper on Monday without passage of the budget bills needed to keep state government operating on July 1. Conference committees met last week, but with no budget targets they could only adopt non-controversial policy provisions. There have been only 3 sessions out of the last 11 budget sessions during which the Legislature completed its work on time.

The 2021 session is scheduled to adjourn in 10 days, but legislative leaders and the Governor have no agreement on overall spending and individual finance bill spending targets.  

The 2021 legislative session is scheduled to adjourn on Monday, May 17th and decisions that will affect NAIFA members are about to be made. House and Senate conference committees will begin meeting this week to reconcile differences in how the two bodies dealt with taxes, spending and hundreds of policy issues.

Reinsurance Conference Committee Set to Begin

Legislature Reaches 3rd Committee Deadline

Friday was the 3rd Committee Deadline, the date by which all finance bills must be reported to the House Ways and Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee. All Finance Committees in the two bodies were busy this week marking up their finance bills, some of which are scheduled to be heard in Ways and Means or Finance next week. 

Legislature Takes Break for Easter and Passover Holidays

The Minnesota Legislature is on its Easter/Passover break until 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, April 6. When the Legislature reconvenes, it will have just six weeks before the scheduled May 17^th adjournment date. The biggest pending issue when legislators reconvene will be finalizing a two-year biennial budget for the biennium beginning July 1.

It’s 2nd Committee Deadline!

Hundreds of bills that escaped dying last Friday with the 1st Committee Deadline died Friday at midnight with the arrival of the 2nd Committee Deadline. The deadline process winnows down the bills that have been introduced over the past weeks from over 4,500 to hundreds, most of which will be folded into omnibus finance bills.