By Michelle Griffith | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders last night announced a deal on the budget items the Legislature plans to pass this session, which ends on Sunday night.
They provided almost no details and didn’t hold a press conference, which may have been wise as last year’s press conference was a disaster. Progressive Democrats disrupted it and banged on the door in protest of the deal, which stripped state-subsidized health insurance from undocumented adults.
This year’s agreement includes funding for the beleaguered county hospital HCMC, an infrastructure package, some property tax relief and a one-year, temporary reduction in car tab fees. Here are some details:
HCMC will receive $205 million this fiscal year and lawmakers will allocate $500 million into a special reserve account that the hospital can tap into beginning next year. The HCMC deal also includes restructuring of the hospital’s governing board.
$1.2 billion for an infrastructure package, also known as a “bonding bill” because it’s funded with borrowed money. No specifics on what projects will be funded yet, but expect many roads, bridges and water treatment facility upgrades. This requires a three-fifths supermajority for passage.
A one-time extension of the state’s homestead credit, which will increase property tax refunds for many Minnesotans.
A one-year reduction in vehicle registration fees, also known as tab fees. The DFL trifecta in 2023 increased tab fees to fund additional transportation projects. The tab tax rate in 2023 was increased from 1.28% to 1.57%. Under the deal, the tab tax rate will go back to 1.28% for one year.
Some money for school safety measures, like additional funds for mental health grants and some money for schools to adopt anonymous threat reporting systems.
Also notable is what is not in the deal — no money to help people and businesses impacted by Operation Metro Surge, nor any gun control measures. Republicans this year have been clear that those things will not pass.
A handful of House Democrats today will be conducting a sit-in on the House floor to pressure GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth to take up gun control measures in the House. In 2018, then-Rep. Erin Maye Quade held a sit-in on the House floor for 24 hours to also protest inaction on gun control. It raised the profile of Maye Quade and the gun issue, but didn’t lead to legislation that year.
We’ll have more details on the agreement later today, but there still could be surprises in the session’s last days.
Onto today’s Reformer.
An observer films as armed ICE agents arrest two men during a traffic stop Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026 on Bottineau Blvd. in Robbinsdale. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Madison McVan
Juan Carlos Rodriguez Romero is facing three federal felony charges following his arrest in December during the early stages of Operation Metro Surge.
Immigration agents on Dec. 21 pulled him over, surrounded his vehicle and ordered him to get out of the car. Rodriguez Romero refused and after the agents threatened to break his window, he drove away. The agents hopped back into their cars and pursued him. Rodriguez Romero hit two parked cars and came to a stop. ICE agents approached him, this time with guns drawn, and fired two shots at his car as he started to drive away again.
The feds say that Rodriguez Romero pinned an agent between two vehicles, but he says the agents rammed into his car from behind.
No video has emerged of the events leading up to his arrest, and ICE officials and officers have misled the public before about similar incidents. The evidence provided by the government so far largely consists of interviews with the agents on the scene, who contradict each other on key details.
If convicted, Rodriguez Romero could face more than 20 years in prison.
By Alyssa Chen and Max Nesterak
Hennepin Healthcare and Hennepin County Medical Center — the state’s largest safety net hospital on the verge of financial collapse — served patients from all but one Minnesota county in 2025.
The vast majority of patients served by Hennepin Healthcare, which operates HCMC as well as community clinics, live in Hennepin County. But many patients from other counties are transferred from outside the metro area because the hospital offers specialized services not widely available elsewhere in the state.
HCMC treated 114,614 individual patients in 2025 — nearly 1 in 50 Minnesotans — which added up to 702,283 inpatient and outpatient cases, according to county data.
Legislative leaders agreed to provide one-time money, according to the deal announced last night, but the county is advocating for a sales tax increase because “the financial challenges facing Hennepin Healthcare are not one-time gaps; they are structural and growing over time,” a county spokesperson said.
By Josh Crosson
The executive director of education advocacy group EdAllies argues that Minnesota’s school funding crisis is a full-blown emergency.
Crosson argues that lawmakers should provide additional funding to schools that serve students living in poverty, reconsider a planned $250 million cut to special education, improve Minnesota’s targeted funding streams for schools and make sure schools don’t lose funding in the wake of Operation Metro Surge.
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Have a great Thursday.
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