Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders announced there will be a one-day special session on Monday to pass the remaining parts of the next two-year budget, ending weeks of limbo in the most closely divided Legislature in state history. 

Key lawmakers and legislative leaders along with the governor had been working largely behind closed doors to balance a budget in the weeks since the regular session ended on May 19. Unresolved issues and political sticking points meant that overtime was inevitable.   

This session was unique with the tied House and a one-seat advantage for Democrats in the Senate. That close make-up—100 Republicans and 101 Democrats—made negotiations fragile. It's as if every individual lawmaker has their own veto, Walz described the dynamic earlier this week. 

All sides had to make concessions to ink a deal, refine the proposals, and find a way to ensure passage of the necessary bills to fund state government and its services. They also had to make difficult decisions on where to find savings through cuts since the state is staring down a $6 billion deficit in future years.

"This work truly reflects coming together in a bipartisan way," House Speaker Lisa Demuth told reporters Friday. "Not everybody is happy about every part of it, and that's to be expected. But by getting this work done, even though late, we're looking forward to Monday, getting things closed up and then moving forward."  

Among the most controversial provisions is the compromise to roll back state health care coverage for undocumented immigrants. Despite fierce pushback from Democrats in both chambers, leaders said the votes are there to make it happen.  

"Certainly, undocumented adults are deserving of health care as well. But in order to get a budget agreement that funds the government for the state of Minnesota, this is a compromise that I was willing to make, and if it requires just my vote, then that's that's how we'll get it done," said Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park.   

Walz and GOP and DFL leaders across both chambers agreed, according to a signed document, that the session would begin Monday at 10 a.m. and end by 7 a.m. Tuesday. 

The scope of it will focus only on the budget bills at hand, in addition to a stand-alone bill to remove undocumented immigrant adults from MinnesotaCare and another to make changes to tax breaks for the development of data centers in the state, which marked another point of contention. 

There are also some additional small tweaks to the recent law guaranteeing earned sick time for workers in the latest agreement announced Friday. That helped secure the support of Senate Republicans in the minority, whose votes are needed to pass a bonding bill funding local infrastructure projects and to suspend the chamber's rules to ensure they can pass everything done in one day. 

Roughly 30,000 state workers were set to get a layoff notice Monday morning as part of protocol, since failure to pass a budget by July 1 means a partial government shutdown.

But the governor's office said that could be delayed until Tuesday morning, which is when the special session is set to end. If lawmakers complete all their work by that time, the state will avoid sending those messages to employees. 

"This bipartisan budget agreement makes thoughtful reductions in state spending while keeping us on track to make Minnesota the best state in the country to raise a child," Walz said in a statement. "It is the result of hundreds of hours of good-faith, bipartisan debate on the best ways to improve the health, safety and well-being of Minnesotans."

Some of the work fine-tuning bills will continue through the weekend before the Legislature will approve them on Monday. 

Caroline Cummings contributed to this report.

• Minnesota Legislature