Weber co-authoring bill that would give needed boost to metro hospital

District 21 Sen. Bill Weber is co-authoring a bill that would help keep Hennepin County Medical Center operating.

Weber, a Luverne Republican who is serving in his final legislative session, explained Monday that he was asked to co-author a bill introduced by DFL Sen. Ann Rest, chair of the Senate Taxes Committee, regarding the hospital.

"Quite frankly, people say, 'well, why are you concerned about a metro hospital?'" Weber said.  Actually, the Hennepin County Medical Center reaches out into Greater Minnesota to a much larger extent than people realize, and so that's why I was willing to do that."

Weber added that under the bill, the medical center would benefit from what is essentially a continuation of the Hennepin County sales tax that was utilized to fund Target Field. He said he believes that was established back in 2006.

"Now being 20 years old, there are some changes and improvements that need to be made, and this bill that I signed on to provides funds for that," Weber said. "it also has a formula to share these monies with the hospitals up there who are having serious financial problems."

Weber noted that typically, by this time of a legislative session, targets for a supplemental budget have been set, but that's not the case in 2026.

"I think one good thing that might happen is if there is to be any progress, individual bills will have to get passed through and acted upon rather than in an omnibus bill," he said. 

The legislative session will conclude on May 19th.