Legislature presses ahead to the end of the session
The Minnesota House and Senate passed a school finance bill Tuesday night over the objections of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who had wanted an end-of-session budget agreement in place before the vote.
DFL legislative leaders decided to press ahead after closed-door negotiations with the Republican governor broke down.
The latest round of budget talks got hung up when the Pawlenty administration objected to using $50 million from health plan reserve accounts as part of a larger budget balancing plan. Progress on a property tax plan also stalled. Lawmakers have until the end of the week to solve a projected $935 million deficit.
But Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Tarryl Clark, D-St. Cloud, said she is not sure the governor is serious about reaching a budget deal.
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"We want a deal. We still think it's close enough to get there, but there's that goal post. And the governor is moving the goal post, and we need to know where to aim. And right now he just moved it a whole bunch," Clark said.
Budget negotiations got a jump start earlier in the day when the House began debating an education finance bill that would direct more state money to K-12 schools.
Gov. Pawlenty convinced DFL leaders to put the floor session on hold and return to the bargaining table. After the talks broke down, the House and Senate quickly resumed their work and passed the education bill by wide margins in both chambers.
But House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, accused DFLers of jeopardizing an overall budget agreement.
"There's really not that much of a cavern for us to get across to get a global deal. And by pulling K-12 aside and saying we're just going to go ahead and do this without an agreement on how to pay for it smacks of more politics than good policy," Seifert said.
The education bill provides a funding boost to schools by freezing one of the governor's key initiatives, a program that pays teachers based on classroom performance.
After the vote, Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung was blasting Democrats and promising a veto.
"With six days left Democrats have left the table launching bills at the governor You have to take into account both the executive branch and the legislative branch, a bill is not completed until its signed into law. Just passing a bill off the floor does not complete the work," McClung said.
But the DFL House Majority Leader Tony Sertich of Chisholm says he doesn't see the education finance bill as a critical piece of an agreement to balance the budget. Public schools have been largely left out of the discussion of proposed spending cuts.
With budget talks at an impasse, Sertich said the House wanted to get to work.
"We're now in the final week of session. And we feel it's reasonable and appropriate to get our work done. The public I think detests when we wait until the last minute of the last day to pass all our bills. So we're trying to do it in a reasonable way," said Sertich.
The House and the Senate will not be in session again until Thursday. DFL leaders say they hope to use the break to restart budget talks with the governor. The session must end Monday.
