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No Movement Made With 3 Days Left In Legislative Session

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – With just three days before the end of the 2016 legislative session there has still been no action on the major bills of the year.

It's not that uncommon for things to come down to the wire, but this year seems a little different. There are some major bills lawmakers need to pass, but there's really no progress being made and no movement.

Additionally, lawmakers are accusing each other of playing end-of-session politics.

Legislative leaders shared few details about a series of private meetings held Thursday afternoon that lasted into the evening.

What we do know is little headway was made with transportation funding and the public works bill. A big hang-up with this year's transportation bill is whether to raise the gas tax or license tab fee.

A massive Republican public works bill was defeated in the House after it failed to attract any Democratic votes.

Both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk and Republican House speaker Kurt Daudt said they are closing in on how much of a $900-million budget surplus to put towards tax relief, but didn't give specifics.

All of this is a big sign of a deep divide between parties.

By law, all votes must be made by midnight Sunday.

While lawmakers can technically be in session Monday, they will not be able to pass any bills.

Thus, lawmakers will most likely be working throughout the weekend to get something passed. What they come up with will likely be a mystery until then.

There was more pressure on lawmakers to get moving last year because they needed to pass a two-year budget.

This time around lawmakers could leave without spending another cent, leaving the entire$ 900-million surplus on the state's bottom line.

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