Latest tax collection report reveals the state of Minnesota is pretty much rolling in cash
Year-to-date tax receipts are now $2.170 billion more than projected just four months ago.
Peter Callaghan
Peter Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter or email him at pcallaghan(at)minnpost(dot)com.
Why some seemingly popular issues never come up for a vote at the Minnesota Legislature
Looking at you, liquor law liberalization.
Where things stand at the Minnesota Legislature, one week out from a special session
The Minnesota Legislature is expected to reconvene on June 14 in order to pass a budget. Will that goal mean anything more than all the other deadlines lawmakers have already blown this year?
Is a state government shutdown looming in Minnesota? Naaaaah.
It’s not only that state leaders have all said they want to avoid a shutdown. It’s also that nobody is threatening to hold up the budget unless their top issues are adopted.
Budget deal includes several provisions left out of ‘global’ agreement signed by Walz, legislative leaders
The side deals including additional tax cuts and funding to help Minneapolis and St. Paul businesses.
A state government shutdown in Minnesota this year wouldn’t just be pretty bad. It would be very, very, very bad.
How a four-year-old state Supreme Court decision has changed the nature of budget negotiations at the Minnesota Legislature.
Six takeaways from the Minnesota Legislature’s 2021 regular session
From the role of federal stimulus money to the sidelining of once hot-button issues, what we know (or think we know) about the just-completed session.
‘We are at a standstill’: Lawmakers at impasse over how — and when — to end Minnesota’s eviction moratorium
What has been dubbed an “off-ramp” is supposed to smooth the process for those with unpaid rent accumulated during the pandemic.
Rollout of Minnesota’s rental assistance program beset by glitches, slow payments
State Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho said Thursday there are 18,000 pending applications, and predicted that half a million dollars in payments will be sent out this week.
What Monday’s $52 billion budget deal does — and doesn’t — mean for Minnesota
Under the state Constitution, the Legislature’s regular session had to end Monday at Midnight. With a broad spending deal now in place, lawmakers will spend the next several weeks working out the details to meet another constitutional requirement: actually passing a two-year balanced budget before July 1.
How new guidance on how Minnesota can spend ARP money could affect the Legislature’s budget negotiations
More than two-thirds of the $2.8 billion going directly to Minnesota under the massive COVID relief bill can be used to cover lost revenue, which could free the money from being governed by the strict spending restrictions in the federal law.
Minnesota’s mask mandate to end Friday
Gov. Tim Walz made the announcement Thursday and said the mandate will be dropped for everyone — not just for those who have been fully vaccinated.
As a special session looks increasingly likely at the Legislature, DFLers walk away from tax hikes
The move could be key to a budget deal, eventually.
Minnesota to get $256 million more than previously expected under federal COVID relief bill
The news from the U.S. Treasury came as DFL and GOP legislative leaders remain far apart in their negotiations over a two-year budget deal.
New data tool estimates 53,000 households in Minnesota behind on rent
Of those households, 60 percent are people of color, 43 percent are receiving unemployment payments and 75 percent earn less than $50,000 a year, according to the Rent Dent Dashboard, a new tool created by a California-based nonprofit, PolicyLink, and the USC Equity Research Institute.
How the rollback of Minnesota’s COVID restrictions could affect the end-of-session politics at the Capitol
Gov. Tim Walz said that it should take away some of the conflicts that have soured relations with legislative Republicans.
‘The Legislature has proved … they’re not capable of getting the job done’: How redistricting is likely to happen in Minnesota
A Q&A with Peter Wattson, a redistricting expert and lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state, about the state’s history of redistricting — and what he expects to happen between now and next February, when state law requires Minnesota to have a new political map.
It’s ‘theater’ week at the Minnesota Legislature
Legislators charged with working out the state budget really can’t do much until they’re assigned “global” spending targets by their leaders. And those numbers won’t be available until Friday. At the earliest.
Why Minnesota House Democrats keeping talking about 2019 at the 2021 legislative session
When confronted with Republicans’ opposition to any tax increases this year, DFL lawmakers keep pointing out what happened two years ago — even if the GOPers who control the state Senate say Democrats are engaged in ‘wishful thinking.’
House bill would give new board power to challenge drug prices in Minnesota
The board is among the ideas that emerged from a drug pricing advisory task force convened in 2019 by Attorney General Keith Ellison.
