GOP calls again for special session; no new offer?

Posted at 3:11 PM on July 12, 2011 by Paul Tosto (0 Comments)
Filed under: Budget

Gov. Mark Dayton said this morning he was awaiting a counter offer on the budget from Republicans and that he understood it was nearly complete.

It appears now he'll be waiting awhile.

Republican leaders at an afternoon press conference simply restated they want Dayton to call lawmakers back into a special session to deal with bills where they say they and the governor are near agreement.

So is a new counter offer coming? House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, wouldn't say. But he did make it clear that none of his House Republicans will vote for a tax increase.

Republicans have not made a budget move since June 30 except to push for a lights on bill.

Republican officials say there are six bills with $19 billion in spending where they and Dayton are only $91 million apart and that and those bill could put 16,000 out of 22,000 laid off state employees back to work if the governor would call a special session.

MPR News reporter Tom Scheck, though, reports that Dayton's staff says they are not close on those bills.

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