Legislative deal: hospital bailout, infrastructure bill, cuts to property taxes and car tab fees

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders announced a deal late Wednesday on the big-ticket items the Legislature plans to pass this session, which ends on Sunday night.

They provided few details, but Walz and some legislative leaders are holding press conferences Thursday.

The agreement includes funding for the beleaguered Hennepin County Medical Center, an infrastructure package, some property tax relief and a one-year, temporary reduction in car tab fees.

Here are some details:

• HCMC will receive $205 million this fiscal year and lawmakers will allocate $500 million into a special reserve account that the hospital can tap into beginning next year. The HCMC deal also includes restructuring of the hospital’s governing board.
• $1.2 billion for an infrastructure package, also known as a “bonding bill” because it’s funded with borrowed money. No specifics on what projects will be funded yet, but expect many roads, bridges and water treatment facility upgrades. This requires a three-fifths supermajority for passage.
• A one-time extension of the state’s homestead credit, which will increase property tax refunds for many Minnesotans.
• A one-year reduction in vehicle registration fees, also known as tab fees. The DFL trifecta in 2023 increased tab fees to fund additional transportation projects. The tab tax rate in 2023 increased from 1.28% to 1.57%. Under the deal, the tab tax rate will go back to 1.28% for one year.
• Some money for school safety measures, like additional funds for mental health grants and some money for schools to adopt anonymous threat reporting systems.

The deal is Walz’s last, as his term ends in January and he’s not seeking reelection. The deadlocked Minnesota House — jointly controlled by Republicans and Democrats — has tempered Walz’s ambitions.

Walz said the agreement was “hard fought.”

“My job is to hand this off to the next governor … a state that is in solid financial shape,” Walz said.

Also notable: what is not in the agreement — gun control measures. Republicans this year have been clear that those things will not pass.

A handful of House Democrats today will be conducting a sit-in on the House floor to pressure GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth to take up gun control measures in the House. In 2018, then-Rep. Erin Maye Quade held a sit-in on the House floor for 24 hours, also protest inaction on gun control. It raised the profile of Maye Quade — now a state senator — and the gun issue, but didn’t lead to legislation that year.

The governor said on Thursday morning he met with the parents of children who attend Annunciation Catholic Church — where a massacre last year killed two and wounded more than two dozen others — and said that he’s still hopeful lawmakers will pass a ban on so-called assault weapons and other gun control measures.

Walz said House Republicans are reluctant to allow the bill to come to a vote because it would pass, meaning win some Republican support in the 67-67 House. (It won no Republican votes in the Senate, where it passed 34-33, however.)

“(If) you believe this idea of these assault weapons and high capacity magazines … that is a right that can never be abridged upon in any way, you should probably then vote no against this, and you should be proud to stand up,” Walz said.

(Story written by Michelle Griffith – Minnesota Reformer)