DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the House and Senate GOP leadership held a "productive" meeting Friday in an attempt to find some common ground before the Legislature returns to work next week.
It remains to be seen whether the meeting produces any progress on a Vikings stadium deal, taxes, bonding or a host of other proposals still pending as the Legislature rushes to adjourn before May.
"It was a productive meeting. Any time you're talking about things that are of significance to the state of Minnesota, not just individual caucuses, it's good," House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said, after emerging from the hour and a half meeting with the governor.
Lawmakers return from spring break Monday to face a long list of un-passed legislation: the stadium deal, a proposed constitutional amendment that would turn Minnesota into a right to work state, and hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of infrastructure projects that can't begin until the Legislature passes a bonding bill.
But one issue sits at the top of the GOP leadership's wish list.
"Obviously, our great interest is putting together a tax bill that is going to be acceptable to (Dayton), and we talked at great lengths about that. How to do it, if we could do it," Senate Majority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, said.
Both GOP caucuses are anxious to pass a slate of business-friendly tax cuts and credits. But they've met with a chilly reception from the DFL, particularly a House proposal to pay for a reduction in business property taxes by cutting a program that offers tax credits to lower-income renters. The Senate, meanwhile, has pushed a tax bill that would pay for business tax credits by dipping into state reserves.
"The Senate bill, the House bill, we see as a lovely buffet, and the governor can come and pick and choose," Zellers said. "There are some things we are pitching a little harder, but there's a lot of options available there."
The bulk of the talk with the governor focused on the tax bills, Senjem said, along with some talk of the bonding bill as well. Whether that bonding bill ever passes is an open question – "we'll have to see how that goes," Senjem said.
The Legislature is running out of time to pass any bills. Both Zellers and Senjem said they expected the 2012 session to be over by May.
Dayton, meanwhile, described the meeting as "cordial."
But he said the GOP showed no interest in his own tax proposals, notably his plan to close a tax loopholes that benefit foreign-owned businesses based in Minnesota. The governor had hoped to use the taxes raised as a result to offer businesses a tax incentive to hire the unemployed.
"I like cutting taxes as much as any of them. The question is, where's the money coming from," Dayton said.
Dayton said it's up to the Legislature to decide whether there will be a bonding bill this year. Dayton had proposed a $775 million bonding bill. The House countered with a $280 million bill and the Senate bonding proposal fell somewhere in between.
There are plenty of bills the governor would like to see pass, Dayton has told reporters before. But there's nothing he absolutely needs, not even a bonding bill.
"They're accountable for whether a bonding bill passes or not," Dayton said Friday. "If they wanted to pass one, I told them I'm very happy to call DFL legislators or Republican legislators, do whatever I can. Same thing with the stadium. I'll do whatever I can to be helpful, I need to know from them: Are they going to take the leadership necessary, especially with their majority caucuses, to get something through that we want to get through?
