Governor, legislative leaders remain at budget impasse

Gov. Mark Dayton said Wednesday that legislators must reconcile differences in major House and Senate omnibus bills before final negotiations with him can begin, while House Republicans issued a statement accusing the governor of changing the “parameters” he set for the Legislature to conclude its work.

With less than a month before the 2017 regular session ends, the dispute over how its final weeks should proceed threatens to derail what had been relatively swift progress.

Speaking to reporters at a morning briefing, Dayton said the Legislature must reach an agreement on one set of budget numbers his administration could review and sign off on. These budget “targets” would then serve as the basis for talks to begin.

“Once they finish their job, which is to reconcile their bills from both a budget and policy standpoint, then I’m ready to sit down and negotiate a final resolution,” Dayton said. “But they have significant differences themselves.”

However, the Republicans’ statement included an excerpt from a March 13 letter the governor sent to House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) requesting “that we set joint conference committee targets no later than Friday, April 28.”

WATCH Full video from Dayton's Wednesday news conference

It also said Dayton’s more recent comments seemed to conflict with that request and that “Speaker Daudt has continually raised concerns about the governor failing to be engaged in the budget process and holding back his commissioners from negotiating details of the budget bills in open and transparent Conference Committees.”

The governor said he’d “inarticulately expressed” himself in the letter, but has since clarified his position on more than one occasion. Dayton also said his administration has had an ongoing role in the legislative process, noting he recently sent House and Senate leaders 55 letters outlining his concerns with each of their omnibus budget bills.

“It’s unfounded to say I’m not engaged,” Dayton said.

On a conference call with reporters later in the day, Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans said administration officials are “very concerned” about some spending proposals being discussed, and the state could not afford what’s been proposed in the House tax and transportation omnibus bills.

He said once the Legislature agrees on final numbers, MMB would need to review those spending calculations to make sure they are “accurate” and “comprise a balanced biennial budget.”

The deadline to end the Legislature’s 2017 regular session is May 22.