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2021 MMUA Legislative Report <br />Section 1: 2021 Legislative Session(s) Overview <br />As required by the Minnesota State Constitution, the 2021 Regular Session of the Minnesota <br />State Legislature convened at noon on Tuesday, January 5. It convened, however, to basically <br />empty chambers in an empty Capitol building, due to the pandemic. The House and Senate <br />carried forward the rules promulgated during the 2020 Session for remote participation and <br />voting by members. Left to some ambiguity was the process to get bills drafted and signed by <br />members, but considering there were 2,572 Senate bills introduced, and 2,653 House bills, <br />somebody found a way to make things work, and that was just for the Regular Session. The <br />First Special Session saw an additional 71 Senate files and 69 House files introduced. In the <br />end, however, only 31 bills from the Regular Session were signed by the Governor and just 14 <br />survived the First Special Session, with 13 of them being the required budget bills. <br /> <br />Being the first year of a new legislative biennium, the Legislature’s primary duty was to develop <br />a balanced budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal biennium starting July 1, 2021. The November 2020 <br />budget forecast revealed a projected mixed bag regarding the State’s budget. The good news <br />was a projected $641 million surplus for the end of the 2021 budget year. However, the forecast <br />also projected a $1.27 billion shortfall for the 2022-2023 biennium, a figure that grew to $2.64 <br />when inflation was added into the equation. For the purpose of setting a biennial budget, <br />however, the State is required to use the February forecast, and with a projected surplus of <br />$1.571 billion for the 2022-2023 fiscal years, the February 2021 forecast painted a much rosier <br />picture than had been projected in the November 2020 forecast. <br /> <br />One would think that having more money available, and strong projections going forward, would <br />make things easier when setting a budget, but it does not, particularly with a divided legislature. <br />And Minnesota’s legislature is particularly divided with four formal caucuses (DFL, Republican, <br />New Republican, and Independent. And one member who had joined the New Republican <br />caucus was evicted from that caucus and finished the term unaffiliated with any caucus.) <br /> <br />Further complicating things this year was that everyone knew a special session would be called <br />in mid-June to deal with the governor’s extension of the COVID-19 based peacetime <br />emergency, which meant the real date for completing a budget deal was June 30, the last day of <br />the 2021 fiscal year. This provided over a month of additional time for all sides to do their <br />posturing before striking an agreement and adopting the new budget that increased key <br />spending goals for things like E-12 education, while not imposing any new taxes. <br /> <br />A unique factor in reaching an agreement was the influx of federal COVID-19 relief funds. The <br />Legislature had to wait until they knew how many hundreds of millions of dollars were being <br />earmarked for Minnesota, when the funds would arrive, and what strings were attached to the <br />funding. And as was the case with energy related money, it took a very long time to receive <br />guidance from the Treasury Department as to what exactly the money could be used for. <br /> <br />1 <br /> <br />107 <br />