Leaders test wills, then hold ‘friendly’ talks

06/28/2005

Dane Smith and Patricia Lopez,
Star Tribune
June 28, 2005

After a day of maneuvering and finger-pointing about where and when they should meet, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislative leaders finally got together in the governor’s residence Monday night and negotiated their differences on the state budget deadlock for several hours.

Emerging about 10 p.m. for a progress report, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, D-Willmar, and House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, reported little real progress and agreed that the two sides were still about $900 million apart on how much they wanted to tax and spend over the next two years.

However, it was the longest such summit meeting so far and the atmosphere was described as “friendly, congenial, respectful” by Johnson and “jovial and spirited” by Sviggum. That held out at least some hope for a budget agreement that would prevent an extended shutdown of state government services.

Even if an overall accord is reached in the next day or so, it will take days to get legislation passed and signed into law, and at least some services are likely to be disrupted when the two-year budget expires Thursday.

With both sides claiming they do not want a shutdown, the battle came down to a test of wills Monday between two men who, for most of the day, couldn’t even agree on where to meet.

Pawlenty started the day by ordering the state plane fueled at the St. Paul Downtown Airport, ready to whisk the four legislative leaders to Camp Ripley in central Minnesota for locked-door negotiations.

“I’ve asked them to pack their bags, bring their toothbrushes and be prepared to stay indefinitely,” Pawlenty said. “I expect them to accept.”

But Johnson found the offer easy to refuse. Flying to the National Guard facility made “little sense,” he said, particularly without the company of fiscal staff, as Pawlenty stipulated. Instead, he said, Pawlenty should do what previous governors had done: hold a summit at the governor’s residence in St. Paul.

Pawlenty acceded, and DFLers came to a meeting there Monday night with a five-point offer that Johnson described as “very, very serious.” Its centerpiece was a change in the Senate proposal for higher income taxes on the state’s wealthiest households. Instead of dedicating that revenue to increased spending on schools and health care, DFLers proposed to trade the increase for a range of middle-class tax cuts.

Until now, the two sides have remained about $800 million to $1 billion apart on a $30 billion budget agreement, unable to reach consensus on spending levels and funding sources for education and health care. DFLers have insisted on income tax increases while Republicans have renewed their push for a racino that would put slot machines at the Canterbury Park racetrack and give the state a cut.

Negotiations have crawled along or simply not taken place since Pawlenty called a special session a month ago. Insults and blame-laying have dominated the exchange.

A weekend of expected nonstop negotiating got off to a bad start Friday, when a meeting between Johnson and Pawlenty fell through. Pawlenty had left the Capitol to attend an evening wedding in Stillwater, telling Johnson he would return. Johnson stayed awhile—how long is unclear—then headed home. A tuxedo-clad governor came in sometime later, waited awhile, then left.

“He [Johnson] left the governor sitting around in his tuxedo waiting for him,” Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, said. Johnson staffers retorted that Pawlenty had left Johnson to cool his heels at the Capitol on his 58th birthday.

On Saturday, Pawlenty skipped meetings to attend his daughter’s soccer game. On Sunday, Johnson skipped meetings to attend a dinner in Louisville, Ky. By Sunday night, Pawlenty proclaimed the situation at the Capitol “ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, legislators and state officials moved forward Monday with plans to minimize disruptions in the case of a government shutdown. The Senate Rules Committee approved a “lights-on” bill that would continue funding at current levels for programs administered by the Departments of Agriculture, Employment and Economic Development and Natural Resources.

Meanwhile, state agency leaders gathered for a somber rundown on the mechanics of closing state government. There were suspension letters to send to vendors, voice messages explaining delays and letters available for the creditors of state employees left without paychecks.

At a Senate floor session, an agitated Day told members that “we’re soon to become the most dysfunctional legislative body in the United States. We’re not far from it. ... I can’t believe we’re all sitting here and we’re going to let this happen.”