Senate, House Agreement on Supplemental Budget Passes

The Senate gave its final approval Saturday, May 19, to the Senate and House agreement on the supplemental budget bill, which funds many state initiatives, including improving school safety, curbing opioid addiction, and ending elder abuse. The all-encompassing bill reflects many of the Senate and House Republican priorities showcased during the 2018 legislative session.

"This has a lot of good things in it," said Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka in describing the scope of the legislation. "Maybe there's one or two things here or there that one of us doesn't like, but there's ten or twenty things in there that all of us like," he added. He said the governor sent the conference committee about 117 objections, "and we jettisoned or modified over 60 percent," he said.

"I'm sure there's stuff in here that we all agree we should do," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk. "It just seems like there is one heck of a lot of work in here, the work of the entire session relative to the supplemental budget going down to a certain veto," he added.

The conference report to the bill was approved by the House and sent to Governor Dayton, who earlier in the day said he would take his time to review it.