Almanac: At the Capitol

Monday the budget negotiations truly begin as Republicans send the first budget offer to Democrats. Minority Leader Marty Seifert says Monday Gov. Pawlenty and Republican leaders will present a budget offer. They earned the honors through a coin toss in a meeting earlier this week. Seifert gave us what could be a preview. The biggest point of contention continues to be how to use money in the health care access fund. Dems want to use it to expand access, GOPers want to use it to balance the budget. Seifert's compromise is to use it for a cost of living adjustment, or COLA in Capitol lingo, for nursing homes. I asked Sen. Tarryl Clark about that idea today and she said that the health care access fund needs to be used for healthcare and nursing homes don't really count in their definition of health care.

Seifert also announced that his caucus will be running ads in the little TV monitors in some gas stations about Dems raising the gas tax (and of course there were a few Republicans too). As far as Seifert knows, they'll be the first political entity to use gas stations for advertising. He said "someone smart must have come up with that idea" he is the someone.

Sertich, er, Seifert, I mean Sertich had a good funny today too. Many have confused the majority and minority leaders' names, but this week Speaker Kelliher confused them repeatedly on the House floor. So Sertich came to the weekly press briefing with a name tag on and plans to give one to Seifert too. He said it will be "helpful" for the speaker so she can remember her colleague's name.

Legislative leaders met with Gov. Pawlenty today to set the stage for end of session negotiations. The mood was positive and playful, Sen. Pogemiller did a silly "perp walk" on the way into the meeting. Democrats and Republicans all said it was a nice, professional, positive meeting. But that's where the agreement ends.

Sen. Pogemiller's first comments afterwards were that there was "general understanding no new revenue is on the table ... and there was general understanding the health care access fund will not be used to balance the budget." The governor's budget proposes using the health care access fund to balance the budget. Reporters asked several follow up questions to make sure we heard it correctly that Pawlenty had given up on using one of his sources of revenue to balance a nearly billion dollar shortfall.

Republican leaders Senjem and Seifert had a totally different story. They said there was no such agreement or "general understanding" and that the governor hasn't waivered from his position on using the health care access fund. Democrats want to fund more health care access with the fund and Republicans argue they're using it to prevent cuts to nursing homes, which is health care.

What this really all means is that this relationship between the governor and legislative leaders seems as confused as ever. They might appear to be functioning better, but it's still dysfunctional.