State's budget talks off to slow start

A park, a rail line, a nursing home and a health-care fund emerged as key bargaining points in an early budget negotiation among legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

By PATRICIA LOPEZ, Star Tribune

Last update: April 16, 2008 - 10:14 PM

Budget talks got off to an uneven start Wednesday when DFL and GOP leaders failed to agree on even what occurred when they gathered for a closed-door meeting with Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, told reporters that they had reached a "general understanding" with Pawlenty to keep a special health-care fund off-limits for deficit reduction.

But Pawlenty's spokesman, Brian McClung, said no such understanding had been reached. Pawlenty has proposed using $250 million of the state's health-care access fund to prevent deeper cuts to health care. DFLers have said the fund must be preserved for its intended use: expansion of health care, not budget-balancing.

Other differences also separate the two sides. DFLers want to resurrect the Central Corridor light-rail line, which Pawlenty recently removed from the bonding bill with a line-item veto. McClung said Wednesday that DFLers first will have to take a second look at items Pawlenty wants: funding for a Minneapolis veterans' nursing home and a new state park at Lake Vermilion.

Both are projects of statewide significance, McClung said. DFLers pointedly left both out of the earlier bonding bill.

Some common ground was reached in the meeting, which was the first in what is expected to be a string of budget talks.

All sides agreed to submit offers in writing, with numbers and designated top staff as negotiators. Kelliher said the House agreed to strip extraneous policy from its budget bill, and both bodies agreed not to introduce any new revenue sources in the remaining weeks of the session.

"This is setting the table for end of session," said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm.

Searching for a neutral way to determine who would make the next move, leaders settled the matter with a coin toss.

Partway through the meeting, Sen. Betsy Wergin, R-Princeton, pulled out a nickel and flipped it. Sertich called it -- heads. The result? Pawlenty will make the first formal budget offer in the coming days.

"We're going to ask Senator Wergin to hang on to that nickel," Kelliher jokingly told reporters.

Patricia Lopez • 651-222-1288

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Governor: Tim Pawlenty
One of only a few prominent Republicans to win a competitive re-election contest in the Democratic sweep of 2006, Tim Pawlenty is widely seen as politically shrewd and naturally likable.

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