No Breakthroughs Yet Toward A Budget Agreement
ST. PAUL (WCCO) -- With only 23 days left before a government shutdown in Minnesota, a possible budget agreement continues to be at a standstill.
The legislature and the governor ended the legislative session without a budget, and without a sense of urgency to make one. Now they are plodding along -- slowly.
Republicans made an offer to Gov. Mark Dayton Monday night they call "substantial" but the governor said it is nowhere near what he says is needed to make a budget deal.
On Tuesday, frustrated Republican leaders raked the governor's tax and budget commissioners over the coals, questioning their objectivity, and whether they want even want to make a deal.
"It's a pretty straightforward question, commissioner. It's not really a gray area. You're either here as a partisan person testifying on behalf of the governor, or you are a non-partisan person, which is it commissioner? It's important to your credibility here," said Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen.
James Showalter, of the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget, responded saying the commissioners were there on the behalf of the governor.
"Despite these questions, we are commissioners for the governor," he said. "We're here to represent the governor and represent the proposals he has made. I don't think that's unusual."
In the next couple of days, it gets real. Tens of thousands of public workers are bracing for layoff notices and the state will start the process of shutting down.
