Senate Republicans on Thursday declined to publicly release the financial targets that will frame much of the budget debate, but changed course and said they will abide state analysts in building their budget outline.
At a news conference, Senate leaders called their budget numbers "soft targets" and would only be known, incrementally, as joint House and Senate conference committees finish their work in the next few days.
"At this point, we are just going to be releasing them as we release the bills," said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo. "They are working targets."
The targets are the bottom-line amount legislators and the governor are willing to spend. Dayton's budget target is $37 billion and includes tax increases. Republicans had previously said they were willing to spend $34 billion, but now it's less clear.
If Republicans lower the number, it means they have to cut deeper to balance the budget and puts them even further from the governor with less than two weeks to go in the session.
"If the Republicans are unwilling to move from their position" legislators are destined for a special session, said House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis.
Republicans did say they would agree to abide by cost and savings estimates by state budget officials.
Republicans had booked hundreds of millions of dollars in savings that state analysts couldn't verify. They fought Dayton's assertion that they had to abide by the same analyst-backed numbers that he did in building his budget outline.
