ST. PAUL - Only a week remains in the Minnesota Legislature's regular session, but negotiations continue on where to spend most of the of the next budget's money.
One of the items not decided is how to raise money for the nearly $30 billion, two-year budget. But legislative leaders and the governor are still approving spending targets for some budget bills.
"We are now, of course, spending some dollars we don't know where they are coming from," House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said.
Sviggum, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty met for much of Monday trying to decide spending levels on several budget bills. The biggest spending bills - those funding public education and health and human services programs - were not discussed in depth, those involved said.
If legislators don't wrap up their work by Monday, they must rely on Pawlenty to call a special session.
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Also Monday:
- The Senate passed a bill 63-0 requiring that information about shaken baby syndrome be available to new parents, child care providers and hospital workers. Johnson sponsored the bill at the request of family friends whose infant son died of injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. The young boy's day care provider was charged but found not guilty.
- The House voted to rename the Highway 10 bridge between Moorhead and Fargo the Veterans Memorial Bridge and the Highway 6 bridge spanning Lake Roosevelt in Cass County the Bradley Waage Memorial Bridge.
- The House overwhelmingly rejected a Senate tax bill that would raise revenues $1.4 billion. It included raising income taxes on the richest Minnesotans.
- Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would allow county fairs to appoint "special constables," with arrest powers on and near the fairgrounds. Pawlenty said the term "special constables" is not defined in the bill or in current law. He said he wants law enforcement officers to be properly trained, but they might not be under the bill.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Don Davis at (651) 290-0707 Reporter Scott Wente contributed to this report. Wente is a reporter for the Red Wing Republican Eagle, a Forum Communications newspaper.
