Don't mark your calendars yet, but a special session to complete the unfinished business of the 2016 Legislature — which last month seemed increasingly unlikely — is now under discussion for the third week in August.

That welcome reversal in legislative outlook was announced Friday after more than two hours of private talks among four key players — Gov. Mark Dayton, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, Senate DFL Majority Leader Tom Bakk and House Republican Speaker Kurt Daudt. That's a potent lineup. But those four cannot produce action on bills on their own — particularly since one of the stalled bills is a bonding bill, which cannot pass without a bipartisan supermajority.

Considerable effort will be required in the next month, not only to agree on the content of the bills to be enacted, but also to convince 201 election-minded legislators that action on those bills is in their best political interests. Members of the House DFL and Senate Republican minorities might be tempted to stand in the way of action in order to take complaints about a "do-nothing Legislature" into the fall campaign. Voters can help them resist that temptation by reminding legislators that their first obligation is to govern, not to position themselves for the next campaign.

The tentative agreement described to Capitol reporters on Friday was vague in many respects, suggesting that plenty of opportunity for gridlock remains. But their vagueness also was a reassuring sign of something that was too often lacking at the end of the 2016 regular session — deference by Bakk and Daudt to their respective chambers' committee chairs. They said that during the next several weeks, while first Daudt and then Dayton attend national political conventions, committees will shape the special session's bills. If that happens in open meetings with a timeline that allows for adequate review, it will represent an improvement over the chaotic lawmaking Minnesotans witnessed at the close of the regular session.

At least three bills are contemplated, the leadership quartet said. Two — taxes and pensions — involve responses to Dayton's vetoes and ought to come together with relative ease. The third — a bonding/transportation measure — deals with some of the year's most contentious issues. Dayton told reporters he had succeeded in his bid to add more projects to the bill, including a $67 million health science education building at the University of Minnesota. In exchange, he said, he dropped his plea for more spending than was authorized in the regular session.

A big stumbling block has not yet been removed. Legislators said work is continuing to find a way to pay for the Southwest light-rail line that does not require the votes of Republican legislators who oppose the project. Allowing Hennepin County to pay the state's $135 million share seemed like a promising option on May 22, until GOP legislators refused to provide even that green light. We'd prefer that transit improvements be paid with a metrowide funding source. But it was disappointing to see GOP legislators stray so far from their traditional views about local control in order to block a transit project — even one backed by the region's biggest employers.

If a path forward for Southwest is not found, the best special-session intentions could still come to naught. A bonding/transportation bill likely cannot pass in the DFL-controlled Senate if Southwest remains stalled. The good feeling exhibited by state leaders Friday is heartening. But finishing their jobs will require more than smiles. They need a plan to pay for Southwest light rail.