Yet another special session for Minnesota legislature

Capitol building in St. Paul
Photo credit Entercom

Minnesota lawmakers are making plans to return to St. Paul for a special session after adjouning late Monday with many issues still unresolved.

Tentative plans are for the legislature to reconvene as early as Thursday.

There are rumblings that the budget compromise reached over the weekend by the governor and legislative leaders may face a tough road before the House and Senate hold floor votes.

"This deal that they cut is very fragile," said WCCO political analyst Blois Olson on The Morning News with Dave Lee. "There was a lot of confusion when conference committees are going to meet, there was a lot of finger-pointing from Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House. The real question is, can they get all the bills processed."

Olson said what legislative leaders don't want is waiting until after the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.

The other three were to deal with disaster relief funding.

Whenever they return, negotiators will need to work out details on the state's next two-year budget after Gov. Walz and legislative leaders hammered out a broad agreement over the weekend.

The compromise was lauded by House and Senate members on both sides of the aisle as proof that a divided government can work together.

State Representative Kurt Daudt, who lost the House Speaker post when Democrats seized control of the chamber in last fall's election, isn't sure a Thursday special session date will work out.

"I just don't think it's realistic," Daudt told WCCO's Chad Hartman. "It takes about three days to wrap up these conference committees, and it takes three days to draft the bills."

Gov. Walz needs to sign a state budget bill by July 1 to avoid Minnesota's first government shutdown since 2011.

Lawmakers did pass a bill aimed at battling the state's opiod crisis, raising fees from prescription drugmakers and distributors to pay for addiction prevention and treatment.