Political Notebook

Senjem offers Dayton advice on reaching a budget deal

In the final hours of the legislative session, Rochester GOP Sen. Dave Senjem sat down for a one-on-one meeting with DFL Gov. Mark Dayton. The topic? Dayton wanted to get Senjem's perspective on what it takes to cut a budget deal.

The former senate minority leader was part of four final budget deals. Senjem said he told the governor the key is for him and legislative leaders to sit down together in a room and start really negotiating.

"We're not going to get this thing done with 201 people. We're not going to get it done with press conferences. We need to start intense negotiations, prolonged negotiations involving legislative leaders and him," Senjem said.

He also told Dayton that as governor he needs to take the lead to make that happen.

When it comes to who is at fault for the session ending without a budget deal, Senjem said everyone is somewhat to blame. He said he backed the Republican strategy of passing out budget bills and leaving them open in hopes of negotiating with the governor. The idea was to avoid having the bills vetoed. In retrospect, he said "maybe I was a little idealistic."

He added, "The idea as good as it might have been just didn't work and so then what do we do? We throw a whole bunch of frankly bad bills at him — bills we knew needed to be negotiated with the governor," Senjem said.

He adds that Dayton also shares in the blame for not empowering his commissioners to work with legislative committee chairs on making changes to those budgets.

In the end, he said those serious negotiations between legislative leaders and the governor should probably have started at least two or three weeks ago. He said his hope is that the governor calls a special session as soon as possible so a deal can be struck to avoid a July 1 government shutdown.

"If he waits until June 27 (to call us back) and puts us against the July 1 wall, then it's politics," he said.

Howe working on government shutdown bill

With time running out before the May 23 deadline and no budget deal in sight, Red Wing GOP Sen. John Howe is working on a bill in case of a government shutdown.

Howe said he worked for the state in the early 80s during a government shutdown. At the time, he was working as a corrections officer — so he still went to work. But he remembers the chaos during that time.

"We need to bring some order to this (possible shutdown) rather than 'let's not talk about it,'" Howe said.

He said he is hoping to put together a bill that could be used as a roadmap for future government shutdowns so that there is something in place.

"I want to have a thorough, thoughtful road map for the future — not just the biennium," he said.

The GOP-led Minnesota House finished passing all of its budget bills early this morning. The Minnesota Senate wil be wrapping up a few final budget bills today. They will then head to DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, who has vowed to "reject" all of the budget bills. He said he wants to reach an agreement with Republicans on an overall budget number. Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers yesterday compared trying to negotiated with Dayton to trying to nail "Jell-O to a tree."