ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The Latest on budget negotiations between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders (all times local):
11:50 a.m.
Minnesota House Democrats are blaming Senate Republicans and their refusal to increase state spending for a collapse in budget negotiations.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are blaming House Democrats for standing by their tax increase proposals.
Talks on budget targets among Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and leaders of the House Democratic and Senate Republican majorities broke off late Monday after the Democrats offered to cut their spending proposals, but Republicans held firm on their proposed spending levels.
While all sides described the tone of the talks as positive earlier in the day, House Speaker Melissa Hortman says the negotiations began to degrade around 10:30 p.m. so she decided to end the discussions.
No new negotiations on the budget targets are scheduled among the top leaders, although conference committees are continuing to meet.
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9:30 a.m.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and top leaders of the Minnesota House and Senate have missed a self-imposed deadline for setting overall budget targets to guide negotiations for ending the legislative session.
The talks broke off late Monday without agreement. Walz says he was willing to cut $200 million in spending from his original proposal. And House Democrats say they were willing to cut $664 million from their higher spending proposals to move toward the governor’s figure. But they say Senate Republicans were unwilling to raise their offer.
Senate Republicans did offer to shift money around within their budget proposal to spend more on education.
Conference committees will continue to meet Tuesday to try to resolve differences between the budget bills that have passed both chambers, but without overall spending targets.
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