Minnesota Budget Bites

What did and did not happen in the June special session to address Minnesotans' health, safety, and economic priorities?

The COVID-19 crisis, and the longstanding crises in policing and racial inequity in Minnesota, have damaged our health, livelihoods, and communities. Policymakers must take bold steps to better ensure Minnesotans can stay healthy, safe, and get by economically in the immediate term, and invest in resilience in all communities for the future.

Federal policymakers should move quickly to direct significant additional funding to states, as well as local and tribal governments, to address the severe impacts of the public health emergency and the economic recession, and to prevent the economic downturn from getting worse.

The May budget projection will guide the decisions that policymakers make in the remaining weeks of the legislative session, and the months beyond. They remind us of how many of our neighbors are struggling, and the importance of taking swift action to reduce the hardships that Minnesotans and their families are facing as a result of the pandemic, and to start building for the economic recovery.