It's get-serious time at the Minnesota Legislature. Today, House/Senate conference committees are scheduled to put the year's 2018-19 budget bills into the GOP majorities' preferred shape. That will trigger the session's long-awaited main event: the Legislature's tussle with DFL Gov. Mark Dayton over taxing and spending in the next two years.
Republican leaders said Friday they want to reach an accord with Dayton by Thursday. They also released joint budget targets that make that deadline seem unrealistic. The GOP numbers make no apparent move in the bipartisan direction that this year's split partisan composition at the Capitol demands.
The targets instead amount to a GOP wish list — a tax cut topping $1 billion; a diversion of $372 million from the general fund to transportation; modest increases for education and public safety, and a punishing squeeze on nearly everything else government does. The targets also allow for a yet-unseen $800 million bonding bill, $200 million of which House leaders said would be reserved for transportation projects. The $600 million remainder is so small that DFL Senate minority leader Tom Bakk — whose caucus must supply at least eight votes for such a measure — said simply, "That won't pass."
For the 2017 session to finish its work by its constitutional deadline — just three weeks from today — GOP priorities will need to bend toward Dayton's soon. The governor seeks substantially more spending for education, human services and government operations. He has indicated willingness to sign a tax bill, but the one he proposed in January is $800 million smaller than the Republican version. The Star Tribune Editorial Board believes that some tax relief is affordable this year. But Dayton is right to resist tax moves that would drain revenue in ever-larger sums in the coming decade, and to reject crippling cuts in state agency operations.
Dayton made a major concession two weeks ago when he said he would sign a transportation bill that draws money from the general fund and does not include his preferred gas tax increase. Tapping the general fund for transportation is something Republicans have sought for years. Republicans have yet to make a similarly consequential bow toward the governor. One should come soon if this year's state lawmaking exercise is to have a fruitful and timely conclusion.
