House Republican leaders took budget negotiations with Gov. Mark Dayton public today, offering to increase education funding $525 million above base funding.
That was the final offer made by Dayton in the closing minutes of the legislative session that ended last month. House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, declined the offer at the time, but now says Republicans are ready to accept it.
Dayton and Daudt ended negotiations Friday and have not met since then. No talks are currently scheduled.
Dayton and his staff have said the final legislative session offer was an offer in a point of time, and that negotiations have re-started fresh. Dayton will not consider anything less than $550 million above education base funding, he said last week. The total education budget is roughly $17 billion.
Daudt said he was tired of "chasing his tail" in the negotiations, and that Dayton seems to keep "moving the goalposts."
Layoff notices will go out today for 9,400 state employees. Daudt, flanked by Majority Leader Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, said they hoped to give workers some assurance they are working toward a conclusion and said they had come up from their original education budget offer by $368 million, while Dayton had come down only $169 million.
Also outstanding are two other bills Dayton vetoed, including a jobs and energy bill and an environment funding bill. Daudt said the two sides are nearing agreement on the two bills but wouldn't provide further details.
Dayton will hold a news conference today at 3.
