Dayton and Daudt tout 'tentative budget deal,' Bakk says some Senate DFL votes in doubt

A tentative deal on a special legislative session might be in jeopardy because of dissension within the DFL Senate caucus, where Majority Leader Tom Bakk on Wednesday admitted he might not be able to line up the votes needed to pass bills.

The day had started on a promising note, with a morning announcement by Dayton's office heralding a deal with Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt that appeared to pave the way to a special session on Friday.

But by early afternoon it became apparent that the deal was more tenuous than had been thought. Talking to reporters, Bakk admitted that some DFL senators are strongly opposed to elements of the new spending bills and he was not going to "twist arms" to produce votes.

"I cannot guarantee these bills are going to pass," the Cook DFLer said "And if they don't, we're going to go back to work."

Dayton is tentatively scheduled Thursday to meet with all four legislative caucus leaders in hopes of nailing down a final agreement before the state draws any closer to a government shutdown.

At the end of last month's regular session, Dayton vetoed more than half the state's budget, in the form of bills on education, environment and jobs and energy. He wants to call legislators to a one-day special session on Friday to pass new versions of these bills. Without a resolution, those parts of government will cease to function on July 1. Already 9,400 state employees have received layoff notices and vendors holding state contracts have been warned that payments might cease. In the absence of a special session, shutdown preparations would continue, with state parks soon halting reservations for campsites.

The lack of unity makes calling legislators back to St. Paul particularly problematic for Dayton. In Minnesota only a governor can convene a special session, but only the Legislature can end one. If he calls legislators back and the agreement begins to break down amid bickering, there would be few constraints on how long a special session could last, particularly with the House and Senate in opposing hands.

On Wednesday Bakk said that the GOP Senate would likely have to help carry a few bills over the finish line to make up for the lack of DFL votes, although Senate Minority Leader David Hann said he has not yet been asked to line up those votes.

"I'm assuming our votes are not needed," said Hann, R-Eden Prairie.

While top negotiators settled the education spending dispute about a week ago, differences in other corners of the state budget have surfaced. This year's process has been particularly fraught for the DFL, with Dayton's demands for a special session shifting over time and Bakk struggling to hold his caucus together even as internal criticism of his leadership has bubbled to the surface.

"I think I'll say that I'm really unhappy with the way the session shook out. It's just been terrible," said Sen. John Marty, a Roseville DFLer.

Marty said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the latest environment bill in part because it eliminates the citizens board for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency — a Dayton concession made to roll back other GOP policy changes that Dayton considered worse for the environment.

Marty said he understands Dayton's reasoning, but is troubled that House Republicans were able to put so many policy changes into final negotiations on spending bills when Senate Democrats seemingly did not get the same opportunity.

Marty is not alone.

"Clearly the environment bill is totally unacceptable," said Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, another veteran senator. Sen. Sandy Pappas of St. Paul and Sen. Jim Carlson of Eagan both told the Star Tribune they, too, plan to vote against the environment bill.

Several said they also may vote against a jobs-energy funding bill, a final version of which was made public late Wednesday night.

Pappas and Dibble said they may not support a $373 million public works bonding bill. "The bonding bill I'm torn on because it doesn't do anything for transit," Pappas said.

DFL interest groups were also weighing in against the new environment bill. In a letter to all legislators on Tuesday, Minnesota Environmental Partnership Executive Director Steve Morse wrote, "We ask you to oppose the bill when it reaches the floor."

In trying to explain how he ended up with a bunch of budget bills unacceptable to significant portions of his caucus, Bakk said it was a combination of overly high expectations from the nearly $2 billion budget surplus at the start of the session and a unified House Republican caucus.

"I think the governor learned the tenacity of House Republicans," Bakk said.

Daudt said Wednesday he anticipated no problems lining up votes from fellow House Republicans necessary to pass the last pieces of spending. He said only the jobs-energy bill has not been vetted with his colleagues.

However, he said, "that final one, we feel like it's gotten better from our perspective."

In the morning announcement that had touted the "tentative budget agreement," Dayton noted he had won a few final concessions from the House GOP. That included $5 million the governor wanted to help Minnesotans with disabilities find and maintain employment, and to prevent homelessness among people suffering from mental illness. Dayton and lawmakers also agreed to give the city of Rochester flexibility in its local sales tax to support the so-called Destination Medical Center economic development initiative.

Daudt said he is hoping for a Thursday late morning or early afternoon meeting with Dayton and legislative leaders in which they sign off on the final special session agenda. That would allow Dayton to officially call the session, most likely for Friday or Monday.

Bakk said he has asked Dayton to meet with Senate DFLers and make his best pitch for supporting bills with so many unpalatable provisions. Dayton previewed what his argument may look like in an earlier statement from his office.

"These resolutions to the bills I vetoed three weeks ago have been extremely difficult," Dayton said, adding, "The sign of a true compromise is that no one is happy with it."

Patrick Condon • 651-925-5049