Senate adopts resolution trimming members' postage budget 10%

The Minnesota Senate on the floor adopted Senate Resolution 13, which sets postage budgets for members for calendar year 2025, after approving an A3 amendment that reduces the chamber’s postage allocation by 10%.

The A3 amendment, offered by Senator Matt Johnson, passed on a roll call vote, 49 ayes to 16 nays. After adoption of the amendment, the full resolution, as amended, passed by a voice/roll call tally reported as 58 ayes and 7 nays.

The amendment’s author framed the change as a modest, symbolic step in a tight budget climate. “What the A3 amendment does is simply take down our postage budget 10% … this is a small amount of sacrifice, but I think is necessary, to make sure that we are being fiscally prudent within our operations here at the Senate,” Senator Matt Johnson said on the floor.

Senate Majority Leader Kari Murphy supported adoption of the resolution while acknowledging budget pressures. “I’m going to suggest to members that you vote in the way you believe is most important for the people you represent,” Murphy said, adding that maintaining means of direct communication with constituents is “that important.”

Senator Ron Weber urged colleagues to vote for the amendment as an example of cost restraint during uncertain budget times, saying the body should “stand up and make the difficult decisions that are going to be required.”

During debate one senator (not identified in the floor transcript excerpts) sharply criticized the previous biennium’s spending, saying the prior legislature “spent like a group of drunken sailors” and urging the current Senate to lead by example. That remark is recorded in the transcript but not tied to a named speaker in the public record excerpt.

According to debate remarks on the floor, the 10% reduction equates to a relatively small dollar amount; a senator referenced $8,710 while urging colleagues to adopt the cut as a symbolic demonstration of restraint. The resolution also preserves the practice of providing additional postage amounts to chairs of standing committees and to the majority and minority leaders at the same levels as in 2024.

A roll-call request and repeated procedural calls (including votes pursuant to Rule 40.7) appear in the transcript during the amendment and final votes. The resolution sets internal budget amounts and does not itself change law or create new statutory obligations; it determines chamber operating allocations for calendar year 2025.

The Senate then resumed other business and later adjourned; the calendar note on the floor set the next convening date as Monday, Feb. 24, at 11 a.m.