Minnesota State Wire

[ST. PAUL, MN] – Governor Tim Walz signed the One Minnesota Budget into law alongside Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, and DFL legislators on the front steps of the State Capitol. The One Minnesota Budget provides the largest tax cut in state history, lowers costs and delivers direct payments to Minnesotans, cuts child poverty, increases funding for public education, and invests in Minnesota’s workforce and economic expansion.

“In January, I outlined a vision to make Minnesota the best state in the nation for kids to grow up in. We’re turning that vision into reality,” said Governor Walz. “The work we’ve done over the last five months will make a generational impact on our state – it will lower costs, improve lives, and cut child poverty. The One Minnesota Budget delivers for Minnesotans, and it would not be possible without the leadership and partnership with the DFL-led legislature. I am grateful for their work and look forward to seeing this budget in action.”

“From significantly cutting child poverty to lowering costs for Minnesotans across the state, we are leading with our values and keeping our promises by building the state and the future that our children deserve,” said Lieutenant Governor Flanagan. “The One Minnesota Budget is historic, deeply rooted in equity, and decades in the making. None of this work would have been possible without our partners in the legislature, our organizers and advocates, our testifiers, our parents, our young people, and our community members from every part of the state. This day and this victory are for you.”

As part of the One Minnesota Budget, Governor Walz signed twelve budget bills into law:

Chapter 64, House File 1938 – Tax Bill

Providing the largest tax cut in state history, the bill provides direct payments to Minnesotans up to certain incomes through a one-time refundable tax credit of $260 for single filers and up to $1,300 for a family with three kids. The tax bill also establishes a nation-leading Child Tax Credit, which provides up to $1,750 per child for lower income families, is expected to cut child poverty by 33%. The bill also fully exempts state taxes on social security for more than three quarters of seniors and includes $300 million in local public safety aid for cities and counties. The bill delivers $80 million each year for local government aid and county program aid to enable local governments to deliver critical services and avoid property tax increases. The bill also provides significant savings for homeowners and renters in the form of a Renter’s Property Tax Refund and Homestead Credit Refund.

Chapter 55, House File 2497 – Education Finance Bill

The bill increases the general funding formula by 4% next year and 2% the year after and ties the funding to inflation, ensuring Minnesota schools have the resources to provide a world-class education for years to come. The bill establishes 5,200 new Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Seats, decreases the Special Education Cross Subsidy by 50%, and provides unemployment insurance for hourly school workers. The bill also provides funding for schools to hire mental health professionals and counselors and improves resources for American Indian students.

Chapter 53, Senate File 3035 - Jobs, Economic Development, Labor, and Industry Omnibus Bill

The bill invests $500 million in the Minnesota Forward Fund - a toolbox that will be used to match federal investments in infrastructure and large-scale economic development projects in existing, new, and emerging industries made possible by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. The bill invests in the Drive for 5 Workforce Fund, a workforce training program which creates a pipeline of workers who are skilled and prepared to enter high-growth and high-wage industries. The bill establishes the Office of New Americans, which will explicitly focus on supporting immigrant and refugee integration, reducing barriers to employment, and improving connections between employers and job seekers.

Chapter 54, House File 2292 – Early Learning Omnibus Bill

The bill allocates $400 million for programs targeted at Minnesota’s youngest learners. The bill includes an increase of $310 million over four years in Early Learning Scholarships and expands eligibility to ages 0-3, allowing the program to serve many more children and families with the highest need. The bill provides a $40 million increase to Head Start, providing another avenue for families to access early learning services for their children. Investments in the early educator workforce will also serve these programs, as well as additional funding for screening programs which help identify the needs of children early on.

Chapter 60, House File 2310 – Environment, Natural Resources, Climate, and Energy Omnibus Bill

The bill invests $110 million in Minnesota’s outdoor recreation industry to build, repair, and maintain the state’s fish hatcheries, boat ramps and public water accesses, and state park facilities. The bill provides $100 million in climate resiliency grants to help communities prepare for extreme weather events and upgrade aging infrastructure. The bill also includes funding for the Upper Sioux Agency State Park land transfer and investments in drinking water protection and PFAS response. The bill also expands the popular Solar for Schools program to provide the opportunity for solar power to be added at schools in Greater Minnesota outside of the Xcel Energy service territory.

Chapter 50, House File 1403 – Human Services Policy Bill

The bill establishes an income exemption for workforce grant payments to ensure that eligibility for public assistance benefits and Medical Assistance is not compromised for direct support professionals. The bill establishes new ways for people to apply for adult income assistance programs submitted by phone or internet and creates a new process for obtaining signatures for an application received without one. It also removes the sunset date for four councils that advise the Department of Human Services: the American Indian Advisory Council, the Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Committee, the American Child Welfare Advisory Council, and the Cultural and Ethnic Communities Leadership Council.

Chapter 41, House File 2073 – Higher Ed Omnibus Bill

The bill funds the North Star Promise Program, which provides free college for students with a family income under $80,000. The bill also provides additional funding for the state’s tribal colleges by expanding the Tribal College Supplemental Grant Assistance program, ensuring tribal colleges receive the same per student funding as other Minnesota public higher education institutions. The bill also appropriates funding to the Board of Regents of University of Minnesota and to the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to provide a first-dollar tuition and free pathway for eligible Minnesota American Indian students to complete an undergraduate education.

Chapter 57, Senate File 2744 – Commerce Omnibus Bill

The Commerce Omnibus bill funds a study on free primary care for Minnesotans and codifies existing federal laws from the Affordable Care Act that allow Minnesotans to access certain preventative services, like routine health screenings, for zero-cost. The bill also funds the Prescription Drug Advisory Board, which creates a board that has the authority to review generic drugs if the price increases above a threshold.

Chapter 61, Senate File 2934 – Omnibus Human Services appropriations Bill

The bill invests $2.9 billion over the next four years across the entire human services spectrum of need. This bill invests funding for long-term care, workforce, substance use and addiction, and provides rate increases for patient care assistants. The bill includes funding for nursing homes, workforce retention in the long-term care industry, and a new program to help bring new Americans into the human services field. Finally, the Human Services Omnibus Bill establishes a new Department of Direct Care and Treatment.

Chapter 62, House File 1830 – State Government Finance Bill

The bill appropriates money for the legislature, constitutional offices, councils, boards and commissions; Minnesota State Retirement System, provides deficiency funding, provides revenue recovery, provides statutory appropriation of funds to operate the House of Representatives, establishes the Office of Enterprise Translation, and creates county and local cybersecurity grants. The bill also modifies election administration provisions relating to voter registration, absentee voting, and election day voting.

Chapter 68, House File 2887 – Transportation Omnibus bill

This $1.3 billion bill includes a historic investment in Minnesota’s transportation infrastructure, including funding for improvements to the state’s roads and bridges and enhancements to the multimodal transportation system. The bill includes the necessary matching dollars for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, invests millions in the national electric vehicle infrastructure program, and provides funding to keep Minnesota’s communities connected.

Chapter 70, Senate File 2995 – Health and Human Services appropriations Omnibus bill

The bill provides funding to help more families access affordable child care and help providers attract and retain workers. The bill also updates the Child Care Assistance Program rate to the 75th percentile and establishes the new Department of Children, Youth, and Families. This bill funds programs to address homelessness in Minnesota, including the Emergency Services Program, Homeless Youth Act, Transitional Housing, and Safe Harbor Housing and Support. The bill includes funding for food security and provides greater stability for Minnesotans living in poverty by requiring households accessing the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) and General Assistance to report changes every six months instead of monthly.

This bill addresses health care access and affordability and includes guaranteed reductions in cost-sharing, the establishment of the Center for Health Care Affordability, and other efforts to reduce the cost of health care. It also includes a guaranteed increase in health insurance coverage for children and disadvantaged communities. The bill raises reimbursement rates for multiple services including mental health and reproductive health.

Original source can be found here.