Prospects of Saturday special session in doubt
With MPR's Tim Pugmire
Another round of high level talks between House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, and Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration yielded no resolution on the budget.
Legislative leaders have scheduled a joint House/Senate hearing on Friday afternoon on the main budget bills but the lack of progress on Thursday could mean the bills aren’t finished by then.
And even though Daudt continues to express optimism that a special session could be held by the end of the week, the private meetings make it difficult to determine whether they’re close to a deal or Daudt is expressing false optimism to the TV cameras.
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Dayton, who held no public events on Thursday, has not said when he intends to call lawmakers back for a special session. They have to reach a budget deal before July 1 or parts of state government will shut down and roughly 10,000 workers could be laid off.
There was progress on one major bill. Leaders announced a deal on a $373 million public works construction bill that funds a number of emergency projects around the state. The bill, which needs a supermajority to pass each body, showed that there was some urgency to get a deal done.
“We’re at a point where we have to wind up, and our orders were to get things done,” said Sen. Leroy Stumpf, DFL-Plummer.
The bill funds several major initiatives including the Capitol renovation, to reroute Highway 53 on the Iron Range and to build new animal testing labs in St. Paul and Willmar.
But there are still outstanding issues involving budget bills funding education, agriculture and the environment and economic development and energy.
Another major sticking point is whether Republicans are willing to reverse a law that erodes the State Auditor’s oversight of counties. Dayton said he won’t call a Special Session unless the Legislature changes the law. He signed a broader State Government budget bill that allowed counties to hire private auditors to look at their financial reports instead of the State Auditor. Republicans say they’re willing to make a technical change to the Auditor language but not remove it.
Late Thursday, Daudt met privately with Dayton to discuss the stalemate but a spokesman for Dayton said no news came from the meeting.
Daudt and House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, were also forced to answer whether they were more concerned about holding the Special Session on Saturday in order to avoid missing a scheduled trip to the Word’s Fair in Italy. Minnesota is bidding on hosting the World’s Fair in 2023 and is sending a contingent to Milan to lobby for the event.
Daudt insisted that a planned trip to Europe next week was not a factor.
“Those travel plans are not effecting our decision making in any way, shape or form,” Daudt said. “Nor are they hurrying us up in any way, shape or form. So that is not a consideration at all.”
An aide to Daudt said the World’s Fair Host Committee is paying for Daudt’s travel. Thissen said he’s paying for his trip. He said his focus is on his legislative duties.
“I’m going to be here for a Special Session,” Thissen said. “But if it looks like for instance this Auditor thing becomes a big roadblock for two weeks then I’ll be available but anyway I’m still waiting to see where things are in terms of what I would do with the trip.”
Thissen has been more involved in budget talks in recent days as legislators worked to craft the bonding bill. The construction bill needs a supermajority to pass forcing House Republicans and Senate Democrats to look across the aisle for support.
It’s a more difficult task in the House where nine Democrats would have to join every Republican to pass the bill. Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, says his party may need even more help.
“I don’t expect 100 percent of the caucus to vote for this and even 100 percent of my caucus doesn’t pass it,” he said. “I believe that the Democrats will provide more than enough votes to pass this bill.”
Thissen says Democrats used their leverage to increase the overall size of the bonding bill. He says they secured more money for higher education and affordable housing.
“We got a much better bonding bill," Thissen said. "It’s certainly not all that I would have liked, but it’s a much improved bonding bill.”
In the Senate, Democrats may also need help passing a few of the budget bills.
On the last day of session, Republicans provided 24 of the needed 34 votes to pass the Agriculture and Environment budget bill and eleven Republicans also voted for the Economic Development and Energy budget bill.
Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, says both of those measures would have failed without Republican support. He said Senate Democrats should not expect the same level of support during the special session.
“No one is talking to us about where our members are and whether they’re going to vote for this thing or not,” Hann said. “If it depends on our votes, they may not be there.”
Hann said Senate Republicans would like to see some spending cuts in exchange for their votes.
Meanwhile, a large group of rank and file members are urging Governor Dayton and legislative leaders to release the bills to the public at least 48 hours before acting on them.
Rep. Barb Yarusso, DFL- Shoreview, says the rush to end the session in May meant many members were forced to vote on bills that they didn’t even see. She said posting the bills early will improve transparency.
“The more people who can get a look at things and weigh in on what those changes mean, the better ideas we have,” she said.