Minn. budget deal preserves paid family leave, boosts school funding but includes cut to undocumented immigrants' health care

A legislative leader said May 14 that Minnesota lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement to fund state government that preserves paid family leave, expands school funding and keeps existing reproductive-rights protections — but that the final spending deal includes cuts to health-care coverage for undocumented immigrants that the leader described as "the most painful vote" they've taken in 20 years.

The budget deal, the leader said, produces "really significant increases in education funding" and keeps a slate of 2023 policy wins intact, while also containing a provision Republicans insisted on that reduces health-care access for undocumented immigrants. "I don't remember ever having to vote for something as painful as that," the legislative leader said. They added that they were the only Democrat who voted for that provision in order to secure agreement to fund state government.

The dispute matters because, the leader said, about 22,000 people will be hurt by the decision, while the state's population is about 5,500,000. The leader said they and their caucus negotiated for other options but that Republicans made the cut a condition for approving the budget. "We worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn't include that provision," the leader said. "We tried any other way we could to come to a budget agreement with Republicans, and they wouldn't have it." The leader characterized their vote as a sacrifice to finish a budget: "I stepped up, and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota."

The leader listed several policy outcomes they said the budget protects: paid family and medical leave, a 100% clean energy trajectory that remains on track, access to universal school meals for children and preservation of reproductive-rights protections in Minnesota. The leader said the paid family and medical-leave program will take effect Jan. 1 and highlighted an earlier education provision from 2023 that builds inflationary increases into school-district funding; they said districts are receiving "substantial increases" from the prior biennium into the next.

On the process, the leader said negotiators did not reach a final budget until May 14 after prolonged talks and that Republican demands produced the health-care provision. Asked whether further bargaining could have avoided the cut, the leader said negotiators had already pushed hard and that the provision "wasn't something that I put on the table. It's something that Republicans put on the table and they are responsible for." The leader acknowledged anger among colleagues and constituents and said some people were "pretty angry" at them for the vote.

The leader also warned that federal budget actions could force the Legislature back into session this fall. "I wouldn't be surprised if we're back here this fall," they said, adding that they hoped federal decision-makers would avoid actions that "cause budget troubles for the state of Minnesota." The leader described the final day of the session as unusually cooperative compared with earlier partisan fights and said the shared-power arrangement ultimately produced "cooperation and collaboration." They expressed hope for more cooperative sessions in future years.

The record provided in the transcript did not include a full roll call or the formal bill number for the budget; the leader described the agreement and their vote but did not provide the complete vote tally. The transcript also did not identify the formal bill text for the health-care change or the exact statutory citations for the programs referenced.

Votes at a glance

- State budget including provision reducing health-care coverage for undocumented immigrants: approved (leader said they were the only Democrat to vote for the provision); full roll call and bill identifier not specified in the transcript.