Closed Door Meetings But Still No Special Session

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- This is Day 17 of the state government shutdown and despite a weekend of negotiations, there is still uncertainty about when it will end. What is known is that the special session will not start on Monday.

On Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton and top Republican leaders agreed to the broad framework of a budget deal. They were hoping they could spend the weekend working out the details and coming to an agreement. If and only if they got this done, they'd be able to call lawmakers back into special session.

While there was plenty of action surrounding the governor's office on Sunday night, it's not action that brought about the announcement of a done deal, at least not now.

In a joint statement released Sunday night by Dayton, House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, they say "considerable progress has been made."

The statement said a special session will be called "as soon as our work is completed."

Hamline law professor David Shulz said he anticipates that timeline could be longer than the thousands out of a job may want to hear.

"There's a lot of roadblocks still, it's not a done deal," he said. "We still have to make sure both sides actually get the votes for it. We clearly know the Democrats are not very happy with the bill, or the deal, and it's not clear that all the Republicans are."

While they had hoped to have a deal done by 10 p.m. Friday, their Sunday was filled with more closed door meetings.

Chair of the tax committee and Republican Sen. Julianne Ortman said she believes the longest-ever state shut down is almost over.

"Legislators are working, we've worked every single day to make sure we could get this compromise through and get back to work for Minnesota," said Ortman. "We want our private economy to succeed and we want folks from the government to come back to work and for our state government to succeed."

Once the shutdown is over and the bill has been approved by lawmakers, then state agencies will recall employees and after the notices are received, the employees will have three days to return to work. For more information for state workers, visit BeReadyMN.com.