Dayton, GOP leaders will keep meeting on the budget

A Friday morning meeting about the state's budget problems between Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders produced an agreement -- to hold more meetings.

After the 90-minute, closed-door meeting at the governor's residence, members of the GOP's leadership team expressed optimism that the meetings will pave the way to a special legislative session the last week of June that would produce a budget that would head off a July 1 government shutdown.

But Dayton, who said he's slightly more optimistic that a shutdown can be averted, expressed doubts that anything substantive can be accomplished unless the Republicans "agree that we're going to meet in the middle" on a budget figure higher than the Republicans have been willing to consider.

Lacking such a "midpoint" figure, "all those meetings are just for show," Dayton said.

But the Republicans made it clear they're not budging from their budget target. "It's not what we say it is -- it's what's in the checkbook," said House Speaker Kurt Zellers.

Although it appears little substantive progress was made toward reaching a budget agreement, both sides called the meeting a positive development. Dayton called it "very constructive," adding that it was "one of the best meetings we've had." Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch called it "very productive."