After a short meeting Monday afternoon, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders appeared hopeful although not confident they could reach a budget deal and avert a government shutdown.
"I'm not going to lay odds on it but there are two possibilities and we are committed to doing everything possible to (avoid) a shutdown," Dayton said after the 45-minute meeting. "We had a very good conversation. They asked some very good questions and I had some answers." He also said leaders asked some questions he wanted to think about more before answering.
House Speaker Kurt Zellers said finished the deal "is taking us a little longer" because of the magnitude of the $5 billion problem and the tough economic times.
The negotiations plan to pick up the talks again Tuesday morning.
Dayton and the legislative leaders have been deliberately vague about what has happened inside their negotiations since Friday. They've donned what they have all taken to calling a "cone of silence" about the events at the negotiating table.
"This is my 10th legislative session and every other one of them the same thing's gone on and you guys know that...When we went the other way -- the public process -- and you saw the impasse," the governor said. "Now we are saying we are doing everything possible to resolve that impasse. That's in the public interest."
Legislative leaders shrugged off a question about staffers' recent tweets complaining that Dayton hasn't released details of his proposed budget cuts.
"That may or may not have happened in the past it is not happening now. We are talking about budgetary items: education, health care, transportation, public safety," said Zellers, R-Maple Grove.
Dayton also reiterated that he was no more willing to sign bills piecemeal than he was at any point in the past two months. Republicans have urged him to do that and repeated that advice at a Stillwater news conference Monday.
