Legislators put their heads together

07/04/2005

Pat Doyle,
Star Tribune
July 4, 2005

Facing the growing consequences of a partial shutdown of state government, legislative leaders met Sunday evening with Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s chief of staff to consider ways to end an impasse over the budget.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, and House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, met for nearly two hours behind closed doors in a virtually empty Capitol with Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, and House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon. They were joined by the governor’s chief of staff, Dan McElroy, and the chairmen of the Senate and House taxes committees.

Legislative leaders didn’t reach a breakthrough Sunday. They hoped to discuss possible new revenue sources for negotiations later this week.

Going into the meeting, Johnson said resolving the budget dispute will assume greater urgency after the holiday. The shutdown put about 9,000 state employees out of work. While they can use vacation during the next two weeks, they won’t be paid until a budget agreement is reached.

“Tuesday is not far away,” Johnson said. “We’re concerned about our public employees.”

Sviggum said state employees could be back to work if DFLers would agree to authorize a racino at Canterbury Park. “We would fund our schools and ... health care benefits and we’d be out of here,” he said before the meeting.

Pawlenty had proposed a racino that would generate $218 million for the state over two years, but later withdrew the offer in the face of DFL opposition. However, Sunday’s meeting underscored disagreement among Republicans about using gambling to raise revenue. Shortly after Sviggum touted the racino to reporters, another meeting participant, Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Lino Lakes, said it was off the table.

Krinkie and Sen. Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, chairmen of the House and Senate taxes committees, are leading a bipartisan Tax Working Group. It “has been empowered to find out how much money we have in the checkbook,” Sviggum said after the meeting.

After budget negotiations broke down last week, Pawlenty said Friday that he was withdrawing his offer of a 75-cent-per-pack cigarette “health impact fee” that would have generated $380 million. But Sviggum said the charge could be resurrected.

The DFLers want to spend more money than Republicans on health care and social services and slightly more on public schools. DFLers and Republicans are $150 million to $660 million apart in their proposals for the $30 billion biennual budget, according to recent estimates.

Asked whether he thought a resolution could come in the next few days, Krinkie said, “I don’t want to get overly optimistic.”