Chairman Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, notified House and Senate conferees about 12:15 a.m. Monday that no meeting will be held this early morning to settle differences on the Legacy Amendment legislation.
Sources said the House, however, has softened its position on the Conservation Partners portion of the fish, game and wildlife part of the bill — good news, because the Senate was not going to negotiate this issue, according to conferees from that chamber.
So a meeting will be held sometime Monday, and the clock will be ticking. Some conferees — and certainly Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller — believe it critical that a Legacy Amendment bill come out of the session, lest voters become even more cynical that even this amount of money couldn't be appropriated correctly.
Look for one more fairly long conference committee meeting Monday, then perhaps a brief final meeting to go over the final bill, before bills are sent to the House and Senate for votes.
If it gets done this session.