Dayton: New budget talks unlikely until Tuesday

Posted at 3:04 PM on July 1, 2011 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)
Filed under: 2011 Shutdown, MN Legislature, Mark Dayton

From MPR's Paul Tosto...

Don't expect the state budget impasse to end this weekend.

Gov. Mark Dayton says while he's willing to meet over the next few days with Republican legislative leaders, he said negotiators need a "breather" and that he expects to begin reaching out on Tuesday to Republicans and DFLers legislators, "anyone with ideas who can help get this resolved."

His comments came during a taped interview this afternoon with Tom Crann, host of MPR's All Things Considered. Portions of the interview will be aired tonight during the show.

Asked about when talks might happen next, Dayton said he'd been strategizing with staff about finding "responsible compromise solutions" to make the state government shutdown as short as possible.

He said he planned to have "individual conversations over the weekend" and then "begin next Tuesday to reach out to Republicans and others to get the impasse resolved.

Asked why wait until Tuesday, Dayton said negotiators had met around the clock for eight days straight and "Sometimes you just need a little bit of a breather. Things ended on a harsh note last night....people are in more need of a good night's sleep than another haranguing."

I'll post the full interview once it's available.

Here's that audio:

Comments (1)

I just saw online that the SeaLife Minnesota Aquarium is offering free admission to all recently laid off state employees - family members can also get in at a discounted rate. I think it's one of the only things not closed!

Posted by John | July 1, 2011 3:52 PM

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