Not There Yet: Minnesota Leaders Hole Up For Budget Talks

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota's top lawmakers are rotating in and out of closed-door meetings in search of a state budget compromise.

Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk met into the night Wednesday and planned to hold additional talks Thursday. Meanwhile, Daudt and other leading Republicans spent time discussing numbers with Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton at the governor's official residence.

They're separated the most on the amount of Minnesota's $1.8 billion surplus should be turned into tax relief. They also differ on the fate of health care programs for the poor like MinnesotaCare, which Republicans want to phase out.

Daudt says the leaders are "still quite a ways away" on a global budget framework, but negotiators in a couple of areas have been given figures to work from.