The state's top political leaders continued private negotiations Thursday over tens of billions of dollars in state spending, finally showing progress by cutting a deal on higher education spending, but not bridging enough major outstanding disagreements to rule out the growing likelihood of a special legislative session.
After several days of talks, Gov. Mark Dayton and leaders of the Senate DFL and House GOP struck deals on several slices of state spending Thursday. They decided that the public higher education system would get a spending increase over the next two years of $166 million to just over $3 billion total. Sen. Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said that probably would not be enough to extend the current tuition freeze at public colleges and universities.
The higher education agreement leaves room for $30 million to the University of Minnesota Medical School, designed to elevate its national reputation. Negotiators also struck a deal to appropriate just over $2 billion for the state courts system and public safety programs — an increase of $111 million over two years.
Dayton backed off an earlier threat to veto a high-profile bill to ban the State Lottery from offering lottery games online and selling instant-play tickets at gas station pumps. The Senate had approved it by a wide bipartisan vote earlier and the House followed suit on Thursday. Dayton vetoed a similar bill last year, but Dayton this year will allow it to become law without his signature, said Matt Swenson, his spokesman.
"The governor will defer to the overwhelming support of the Legislature," Swenson said. Lawmakers had been angered that lottery officials did not clear the new types of sales with the Legislature in the first place.
While Dayton avoided that legislative standoff, budget talks dragged on in the face of still-wide differences between DFLers and Republicans. Between them, the budget categories resolved Thursday comprise only a fraction of total state spending. The biggest portions of the budget remain in dispute: K-12 public schools, health and human services, transportation and a GOP push to cut taxes $2 billion, a little more than the size of the state's projected budget surplus.
"I think it's fair to say it's been slow moving," said Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, one of the lead negotiators for Republicans. "Certainly we've made some progress, but there remains progress to be made."
Many lawmakers did little to hide their irritation that sweeping decisions about billions of dollars in taxpayer money were being made in private by a small group of legislators and executive branch officials.