SAINT PAUL, Minn. (GRAY) – Minnesota’s House of Representatives released its budget targets over the weekend, joining the governor and the Minnesota Senate DFL in sharing an outlook for the upcoming state budget.
The house’s targets take a bipartisan approach to slowing down spending, proposing more cuts than both the senate and the Governor’s proposals.
In the first year of each two-year legislative biennium, the legislature is required to set the state’s budget. Budget targets are a framework set by each body that tells their committees how much they can spend.
With a $6 billion deficit currently forecasted for fiscal years 2028 and 2029, all budget targets aim to cut spending. The house’s proposal is the only one to include Republican interests due to the 67-67 tie between Republicans and DFLers; the senate DFL announced targets that didn’t necessarily account for Republicans as they have a majority, and therefore the ability to pass what they want.
“You can see that [those involved] worked hard coming up with what was fair and really coming to an agreement early on,” said House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring), “You know, it shows that house Republicans have been wanting to work with our Democrat colleagues.”
The house targets propose roughly $1.1B in spending cuts in the current biennium. That’s compared to the senate’s proposed $754M in cuts.
The differences in the two sets of targets grow in FY2028-29: $2.6 billion in proposed cuts for the house and $1.7B in the senate.
While the house targets represent a compromise, DFLers say even their preferred outcome would have differed from the senate and governor.
“There’s certainly 1,000 ways you could balance this budget more and even amongst Democrats, there’s a there’s a number of different approaches you could take,” said Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park).
The area likely to see some of the largest cuts is Human Services.
The house proposal aims to cut HHS spending by $300 million in the current budget cycle and $1 billion in the next. The senate’s proposal in the same area would cut just $272 million and $430 million, respectively.
To cut HHS spending, the governor has proposed a cap on growth to disability waivers. Disability waivers are one of the fastest growing expenditures at the state level. Currently set to adjust to inflation, a cap on spending could theoretically lower the growth rate significantly.
House DFL leaders weren’t specific about whether their cuts would include Walz’s proposal but did say their goal is to slow spending on Human Services, rather than making flat cuts.
“That is not a cut to existing appropriations. That is just reducing the growth from what it would have been to a more manageable number,” Hortman said.
Ultimately, the path to each budget target is left to each committee.
“How we get to the number that is out there is going to be determined by the chairs,” Demuth said, “And there is spending that can be right-sized or can be kind of pulled back together in a more efficient way.”
While the senate and governor’s proposals include eventual cuts to education, the house would increase them by roughly $40 million in the current budget cycle.
Hortman said the difference in those targets was more than a compromise with Republicans—even house DFLers disagreed with the amount of education cuts.
“The Senate target, which cuts $687 million in [FY2028-29], is not a place we could ever land,” said Hortman.
The house’s first committee deadline will arrive on Friday, by which time, “committees must act favorably on bills in their house of origin.”
The legislature has until its adjournment deadline on May 19th to finalize the budget; if they can’t meet that deadline, they will need a special session to finalize it.
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