The Minnesota Legislature never really adjourned. It just went behind closed doors

Addressing a boisterous crowd at the Capitol rotunda from her wheelchair Jillian Nelson program director for the Autism Society of Minnesota laid out the incident for Minnesota not cutting disability services in its biennial budget We cannot and will not allow this state to balance its budget on the backs of disabled people Nelson commented You are cutting into our life You are cutting into home care that keeps us out of institutions Nelson was alluding to a budget bill that passed the Minnesota House earlier this month The measure seeks a million cut compared to budget forecast on long-term care waivers which mostly go to Medicaid recipients who get medicine at their homes The Senate budget and Gov Tim Walz s budget recommendations suggest alternative procedures to cut Medicaid spending Luckily for me just as Nelson was speaking lawmakers from the House and Senate Human Services committees were meeting on the Capitol s third floor to go over these different budget proposals Attending this meeting would be a good chance to see how disability advocates concerns are being incorporated into the state budget Maybe I would hear counterarguments for why disability facility cuts must be made However I was communicated to leave the meeting the moment I arrived Rep Mohamud Noor DFL-Minneapolis and co-chair of the House Human Services Finance and Plan Committee explained the session was private because they were a working group going over a budget roadmap Technically the Minnesota Legislature adjourned late Monday night In reality lawmakers have continued to meet It s just in private What is happening right now with the budget In the place of committee meetings lawmakers are meeting in working groups to go over the budget With the exception of a taxes bill working group the date and time of these meetings have not been made constituents despite Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy DFL-St Paul telling reporters late Monday night that the sessions should be masses The groups are the outcome of the Legislature adjourning without passing spending bills for robustness care K- mentoring transportation and the milieu among other areas From the outside working groups appear to be like a conference committee which is where House and Senate lawmakers iron out their differences Except conference committees meet in residents By Wednesday night the working groups are expected to assessment their progress on bills to House Speaker Lisa Demuth R-Cold Spring Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman DFL-Brooklyn Park and Murphy Those meetings with the state s legislative leaders are also behind closed doors Eventually the legislative leaders will meet with Walz That meeting will be masses I m just kidding of program It s also closed doors At various point it would seem when these budget bills have been hammered out Walz will call a special session of the Legislature Gov Tim Walz updates the Capitol media on Monday May during the final hours of the legislative session No special session has been called yet as working groups are still hammering out budget plans Credit MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid There lawmakers are expected to rapidly pass these budget bills they have been negotiating in private Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera executive director of Common Cause Minnesota compared this anticipated process to speed-dating with budget bills and amendments instead of eligible singles Doesn t all this violate several type of constituents meetings law It doesn t In the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill making their body exempt from the Minnesota Open Meeting Law Under the legislative exception lawmakers are only subject to the open meeting statute When a quorum is present and action is taken regarding a matter within the jurisdiction of the group The key phrase here is action is taken stated Don Gemberling spokesperson for the Minnesota Coalition on Governing body Information and action means whether lawmakers vote on something They will vote in the open meeting for what they already decided in the closed meeting Gemberling noted Other states have laws similar to Minnesota Belladonna-Carrera announced particularly when it comes to budget negotiations There are instances where a level of privacy is needed for a particular section or phase of negotiations Belladonna-Carrera announced However hammering out over of the state budget in private may be stretching the use of the legislative exemption We are talking about tuition funding and changes in healthcare care eligibility Belladonna-Carrera mentioned This is not wonky accounting stuff The post The Minnesota Legislature never really adjourned It just went behind closed doors appeared first on MinnPost