Tension building over deficit as session nears end - Star Tribune
May 12, 2010
Baird Helgeson and Mike Kaszuba, Star Tribune, May 12, 2010
Education funding compromise might prove a bigger problem to overcome as session nears end.
Legislators locked in the vise grip of the state's $3 billion deficit saw two main tasks Tuesday after Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a DFL balanced-budget proposal that increased income taxes for the state's highest earners.
The easier part could be resolving the roughly $435 million gap between the governor's plan and the DFL proposal.
The real grinder, however, might be satisfying DFL leaders' insistence that the state have a way to pay back Pawlenty's proposed delay of $1.7 billion in K-12 school payments. That deferral makes up the single-largest share of his budget-balancing plan.
The governor, who has built a national reputation as a tax foe, vetoed a tax increase the Democrats hoped would help ensure schools are paid back.
So the challenge is to find a middle path that reconciles the two positions.
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