By T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

A 90-minute closed doors meeting of legislative leaders in the Governorís Office Monday (June 6) produced no resolution to the budget impasse at the Capitol.

But lawmakers and Gov. Pawlenty agreed to meet again Tuesday, and leaders spoke of a degree of progress.

ìI consider today some minor progress,î said Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, emerging from the meeting late afternoon.

The governor, explained Johnson, twice asked whether Senate DFLers planned to run out the month to the close of the two-year budget cycle on June 30.

Johnson said he gave Pawlenty ìan unequivocal ëNo.íî

The governorís proposed 75 cent per pack cigarette fee increase will probably be part of the ultimate budget solution, said Johnson.
But Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, told reporters he recommended to the governor that he take the cigarette fee increase off the table.

ìIím saying, ëHey, get it off of there until somebody else is willing to do something,íî Day said.

But the Pawlenty refused, said Day.

Still, Republican leaders and the administration are waiting for Senate DFLers to offer a counteroffer to the cigarette fee proposal.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said the proposed cigarette fee increase ñ a healthcare impact fee, argues the governor ñ will not come to the House floor as a single bill.

It will have to come as part of a global budget package, explained Sviggum.

Sviggum believes Republicans and the Senate DFLers are still about $1 billion apart on the budget ñ Johnson believes itís less. Lawmakers plan to pour over spreadsheets at Tuesdayís meeting to come up with exact dollar amounts, Sviggum explained.

The closed door meeting came the same day the Pawlenty Administration announced an agreement with a state workersí union pertaining to the possible, partial government shutdown.

ìThis week agencies will determine who works and who does not work if a shutdown cannot be averted,î said Eliot Seide, Executive Director of AFSCME Council 5, and Commissioner Cal Ludeman of the Department of Employee Relations.

According to the Pawlenty Administration, some provisions of the agreement include:
ïThe department will allow those employees who are not allowed to work during a shutdown to use accrued vacation time or accrued comp time or advance their vacation accruals during a limited interruption time period, July 1 to July 14.

The July 4th holiday will be paid to any employee who uses vacation or comp time for their regularly scheduled workday before and after the July 4th holiday.

ïIf a shutdown is longer than two weeks, employees will be laid off with their contractual rights, including bumping and severance pay.

ïThe department will provide the union with a layoff notice for affected employees on June 23, meeting contractual requirements for layoffs effective July 15.

ïNotices of individual layoffs will be made and/or postmarked no later than July 2.

ïTemporary, emergency, student workers, and unclassified employees shall be returned to work at the end of the shutdown as long as their appointment was not scheduled to end.

ï All insurance coverage will continue through July 31.

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