Minnesota
Minnesota lawmakers eye potential impacts of federal budget proposals on state
ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Senate Finance Committee spent some of Thursday morning
analyzing proposed budget
cuts from the U.S. House’s budget resolution passed Tuesday, Feb. 25, and how they could affect the state’s budget moving forward.
Minnesota Management and Budget representatives on Thursday, Feb. 27, advised committee members of potential hurdles. State lawmakers must pass a budget this session, and with a federal budget proposal that asks for
$2 trillion in spending cuts
, they are unsure of what that means for the state’s budget.
Under the proposed federal budget, the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees the national Medicaid program, would need to make $880 billion in cuts.
“I want to be clear about what we’re talking about — the numbers of $880 billion in potential cuts to Medicaid — I have severe concerns about that, as do many Minnesotans,” Sen. Liz Boldon, DFL-Rochester, said at the hearing. “That’s not just numbers on a spreadsheet. That is care for people, that is seniors, that is children, that is people with disabilities, that is care that people need and deserve.”
Minnesota’s budget forecast in November showed a looming
$5 billion deficit by 2028
, after coming off an
$18 billion surplus in 2023
. A new budget forecast is expected this week, but Ahna Minge, MMB state budget director, clarified that the new forecast does not include pending cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration or the federal budget, which has only passed the U.S. House.
Under the current operating budget for 2024-25, the state has a total of $119 billion in revenue, with 34% coming from federal funds. In 2025 alone, the state has budgeted $23 billion in federal funds — including $11 billion for Medicaid — according to MMB’s presentation last week.
Dave Greeman, chief financial officer of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, said the impact on Medicaid is still unclear, but if that reduction is distributed proportionately across all states, Minnesota could see a loss of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion in federal Medicaid funds in 2027.
Mary Murphy / Forum News Service
“I think it’s safe to say that the loss of billions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding would significantly impact the state’s financial position,” Minge said. “So the example that Mr. Greeman provided … that’s about $1.2 to $1.3 billion a year, so about two and a half billion dollars a biennium, which is not something that the general fund is able to absorb.”
Medicaid currently covers about
1.4 million Minnesotans
— almost a quarter of the population — including nearly 600,000 children, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
Contributed / Minnesota Management and Budget
The state has also budgeted $1.6 billion in SNAP funding in 2025. The federal budget proposal
called for $230 billion in cuts
from the Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP.
In Minnesota, SNAP provides food assistance for 456,000 low-income Minnesota families with children, seniors, adults with disabilities and other adults, with an average benefit amount of $6.16 per day.
Contributed / Minnesota Management and Budget
After the presentation by MMB, Sen. Rich Draheim, R-Madison Lake, said that while some “what if” discussions are good to have, he wants more focus on the state budget rather than proposed federal budgets.
“We’re looking for a headline here and a distraction,” he said. “We should be looking in our own mirror … We have our own problems here that we have to work through together. It has to be a bipartisan solution.”
Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said the presentation was warranted given the scope of the proposals being made at the federal level.
“Those are huge numbers,” he said. “We just needed to have a presentation on this so we have better preparations to put our budget together with that … This is unprecedented. I think people want change at times, but planned, thoughtful change that makes sense.”
Walz responds to potential federal cuts
Gov. Tim Walz has proposed a plan to “make insurance companies pay their fair share.”
Under the proposal, announced in a press release Thursday, insurance companies would be required to create a fund that covers high-cost procedures. Walz’s proposal would also increase the surcharge on health maintenance organizations from 0.6% to 1.25% of “total premium revenue.”
“This is a case where the state can and will shore up against some of the most drastic, and, quite honestly, to me, some of the more cruel cuts that are coming out of the federal government,” he said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Mary Murphy / Forum News Service
Walz said the proposal would shift the responsibility for the state share of reinsurance to insurers rather than taxpayers.
“We’re simply asking our health insurance companies to help with that bill,” he said. “Means that we can save the money in the general fund to make up for the cuts that are coming to Medicaid and to some of the things that we know Minnesotans are going to need.”
Minnesota
Wildfire smoke from Canada and Minnesota pushes further into US, engulfing DC in eerie haze
NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of people in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states muddled through another day of unhealthy air from uncontrolled wildfires on Friday, as smoke enveloped the nation’s capital in a gloomy, eerie haze.
Air quality warnings were expected to remain in effect through Saturday across a wide swath of the U.S., but there’s potential for temporary relief with rains and storms forecast over a chunk of the affected region over the weekend.
The smoky conditions won’t be gone anytime soon, though, as fires burn unchecked across a remote region of Canada, cautioned Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service based in Maryland. Wildfires in a wilderness area in Minnesota are also contributing to the smoke.
“The source of the smoke is going to continue on for certainly a week, probably,” he said. “So in some form, there’s going to be smoke that gets transported from the fires downstream, and it’s just going to depend upon which way the wind’s blowing as to where the smoke is going to affect the most.”
On Friday, communities in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois closest to the Canadian border and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota again registered some of the worst air quality in the world, according to IQAir, an air quality monitoring website.
Not far behind them was Washington, D.C., where the thick smoke created eerie scenes. The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and other national landmarks could be seen enveloped in a thick, orange-hued haze in the morning.
“Wow that Canadian smoke haze is no joke,” Stewart Verdery, a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, wrote on X as he shared a panorama of D.C. at sunrise. “Almost nothing visible – no sun, no monuments, no Reagan Airport.”
Air in and around Washington was expected to go from bad to worse as the day progressed, reaching “very unhealthy” and potentially “hazardous” levels on the air quality index, regional officials said.
People, particularly those with heart or lung disease, older adults and children, were urged to limit or avoid going outside as much as possible until air quality improved.
There was also concern in the New York City area about how the foul air might impact the World Cup final match between soccer powerhouses Spain and Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday.
Oravec said winds will continue pushing the wildfire smoke east in the U.S., though conditions should be better on game day Sunday than on Saturday.
Just a day earlier, a thick haze tinged with orange and yellow darkened skies across several states and partly obscured Manhattan’s skyline.
Officials from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other Northeast states distributed free K95 face masks, canceled outdoor programming and opened libraries and other public buildings as cooling centers where people could get a respite from the sooty air.
As Friday progressed, air quality measures improved from “unhealthy” to “moderate” in some places in and around New York City.
A strong sun broke through a thin veil of smoke, and large chunks of clear blue sky were visible across much of the region by Friday afternoon.
Saturday brings a high chance of thunderstorms across much of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, which will help dampen the bad air.
How long the reprieve lasts depends on what happens hundreds of miles north, as some 100 wildfires burn without end in sight, largely in the Ontario area in Canada. In the U.S., officials have closed the Boundary Waters while battling multiple fires.
Long-term exposure to smoky conditions can complicate existing health problems and lead to chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases and premature death.
See how the bald eagle’s story shows its enduring symbolism
As the U.S. celebrates 250 years, the bald eagle endures as North America’s native sea eagle and national bird.
The common loon, Minnesota’s state bird, is more closely related to a penguin than a duck.
Despite loons predominantly living in the northern hemisphere and penguins mostly living in the southern hemisphere, researchers consider them to be genetic cousins. Taxonomic analyses placed them in an evolutionary cluster tracing back 40 million to 50 million years ago, along with herons and pelicans.
While loons and ducks share habitat on Minnesota lakes, they aren’t close relatives. Ducks are closer cousins to geese and swans.
After sharing a common ancestor, penguins and loons developed distinct characteristics. Loons can fly, but struggle to move on land; penguins can’t fly, but waddle on land. Penguins use flipper-like wings to swim; loons use webbed feet for underwater propulsion.
They have some similar features, however, including dense bones to help dive underwater and their tuxedo coloring.
MinnPost partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Fires in the past burned more frequently in western Canada, but recent years have seen that trend migrate eastward, with large fires now burning in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic provinces, Prof Chasmer said, leading to more noticeable smoke in densely populated cities like Toronto and New York.
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