Governor: releases a budget that is a bit incomplete for the second biennium and that hits hard on some of the “sacred” Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) positions. He stakes out the early position of no new taxes…

Legislature: responds by remarkably different budget proposals (different from each other as well as the Governor) and no agreement yet on the “full” tax proposal.

Governor: vetoes one of the first, smaller spending bills and the initial tax increase trial balloon bill (SF885) and repeats his message about no new taxes, but expresses a willingness to adjust a few of his initial revenue-raising ideas.

Legislature: finalizes the various omnibus budget bills, including health and human services (HHS), using spending targets that haven’t been agreed to with the Governor, and without a revenue (tax) bill to pay for them, and sends them to the Governor.

Governor: waits out the allotted days for action, making the Legislature very nervous so…

Legislature: introduces a revised HHS omnibus bill idea to significantly reduce rates paid just to long-term care providers and hospitals, thinking that in case the Governor vetoes the first HHS omnibus bill, and there has been no movement on the revenue side of the ledger, there would be added pressure on the Governor to “do the right thing.”  

Governor: pulling out a hidden card, he actually starts signing the various omnibus bills sent to him, with some strategic line-item vetoes. This way, if there is no agreement on revenue sources, he will balance the budget by striking appropriations for various programs as the money starts running out.

Legislature: reacts by poking holes in the various line items, questioning the legalities and distributing papers on the potential implications but they still don’t have a good card to lay back in response.

So, now we wait. The Governor did as many of you asked him to do: sign the HHS omnibus budget bill. We continue to say the budget cannot be balanced through cuts alone and that message needs to continue—there needs to be ultimate agreement on the new revenue. 

The Governor’s action with signing rather than vetoing the key bills (consistent with his message to the media) supports his position of no special session(s) to solve the biennial budget problem. This means in less than 80 hours (which is really like two weeks in legislative dog years) the session will be over one way or the other. It is very tense up on the hill right now, and if you enjoy drama and political theatre, you can access most of this activity on your computers at www.leg.state.mn.us then click on schedules for the webcast and television schedules.