budget stalemate

Minnesota's political leaders are continuing to haggle over how much the state should spend in the next two years, but the shutdown caused by their impasse is getting expensive. The week-old shutdown is causing state coffers to bleed millions of dollars.

Gov. Mark Dayton and top Republicans met again Wednesday without meaningful progress toward resolving the budget dispute that has shut down state government. House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch say the negotiations went backwards when Dayton made an offer for either an income tax increase for top earners or a cigarette tax increase.

Republican legislative leaders are renewing their demand that Gov. Mark Dayton call a special session to pass budget bills that would prevent - or at least soften the pain of - a government shutdown in four days.

Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders will spend a summer Saturday behind closed doors trying to head off a state government shutdown that would hit in less than a week if they can't agree on a budget.

Those campaign-style TV commercials clogging Minnesota's airwaves are brought to you by the budget stalemate at the state Capitol. It used to be that political ads were mostly confined to election years. But the simmering dispute over taxes and spending between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders have inspired interest groups on both sides to take to the airwaves anew.