Shutdown May Be Averted In Minnesota: Dayton Drops Auditor Demand

ST. PAUL (WCCO) -- It appears state leaders may have reached the outline of a deal that would avert a government shutdown.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt sent Gov. Mark Dayton a letter Monday morning saying Republicans would not back down from a bill that would take away duties from the state auditor -- something the Governor said had to happen in order to call a special session.

But late Monday afternoon the Governor pulled back that demand, saying in a letter to Speaker Daudt, "As I should have learned from your Caucus' intransigence in other matters, such as an equitable distribution of early learning funds, you remain unwilling to accept a reasonable compromise between our differences."

In that statement, Gov. Dayton also addressed three new issues he had with the jobs bill. According to a representative of the House Speaker, those three issues don't appear to be a major obstacle in finalizing the details of the bill.

"I'm looking forward to working with Governor Dayton and the other legislative leaders to finalize the agenda for special session so that we can provide relief to farmers affected by avian flu, communities damaged by flooding, and miners facing unemployment on the Iron Range as well as providing job certainty to 9,400 state employees.," Speaker Daudt said in a statement.

Because lawmakers couldn't agree on a budget for the state in the scheduled legislative session, a special session was required to pass several funding bills, including a hotly-contested $17 billion education package.

Dayton said Monday that he hoped a special session would be possible later this week.