Legislative leaders still debating 'dollar amounts' in last days of session

Gov. Tim Walz marked the final stretch of end-of-session budget talks Monday by lamenting how far apart legislative leaders remained and how little time is left to strike an accord.

Leaders have yet to agree on big-picture budget numbers, a step they had hoped to achieve last week. That makes the chances of an on-time finish before the May 17 adjournment deadline increasingly slim. And Gov. Tim Walz on Monday said that budget negotiations have yet to encompass any policy proposals and instead remain fixed on "dollar amounts."

"It's incredibly frustrating to me ... that we wait until the last minute. But that's a bit of the nature of it, and it's still going," said Walz at a news conference in St. Paul, where he urged lawmakers to increase Child Care Assistance Program reimbursement rates. It was the latest in a series of press events Walz has held to push for his spending and policy priorities.

https://www.startribune.com/legislative-leaders-still-debating-dollar-amounts-in-last-days-of-session/600055740/