After two weeks of government shutdown, Minnesota is on its way to being open for business. Lawmakers on Thursday evening announced they had reached an budget agreement to end the shutdown.
Earlier Thursday, Dayton agreed to compromise on the GOP’s budget offer from June 30, just before the state’s government shutdown. But he did so under certain conditions: that the GOP remove its policy issues from the budget, drop a 15 percent reduction to the number of state employees in all agencies and support a $500 million bonding bill.
Now that they have a deal, Dayton said the shutdown will end “very soon,” according to local reports.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch said the final details are still being worked out, but they have reached a “framework agreement,” Minnesota Public radio reported:
Koch said the agreement includes delaying more payments to schools, and borrowing against the state’s future tobacco payments. The agreement would raise $1.4 billion in new revenue.
Dayton met with Republican lawmakers for three hours Thursday. Appearing after the meeting with Koch and Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers, Dayton expressed the tough reality of the agreement. “No one’s going to be happy with this, which is the essence of compromise,” he said. That means, for the time being, the governor will shelve his plan to raise taxes on Minnesota’s millionaires.
Read more at MPR.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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