Minnesota’s two-week-old government shutdown moved toward resolution Thursday, as Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders agreed to a deal for closing the state’s $5 billion budget gap without a tax increase.
After a nearly three-hour meeting with GOP legislative leaders, Dayton said the government shutdown would end as soon as lawmakers flesh out details of the agreement and move them through a special session of the state legislature. Officials said that should happen “within days.”
The agreement to end the shutdown came after Dayton reluctantly acceded to Republican demands not to raise any taxes to balance the state’s two-year budget and embrace a deal the GOP had proposed just before the shutdown.
Dayton, who wanted to include a tax increase on the state’s top 2 percent of wage earners as part of the mix to close the funding gap, said the refusal of GOP legislators to budge left him with little choice but to go along with their alternative.
The plan would balance the state’s budget by cutting programs, delaying state aid to local school districts and borrowing against future tobacco company settlement payments.
