The Minnesota Legislature’s rush to pass budget bills stopped Wednesday afternoon to allow a senator to be with her dying father.
Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, was back home with her father, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said. “Sen. Nelson’s father is gravely ill and we are trying to work with that. We are playing it by ear. We just don’t know. Her being by her dad right now is really important.”
With Nelson gone, that leaves 33 Republicans and 33 Democrats in the Senate.
“We can’t pass any budget will without 34 Republican votes,” Gazelka said.
However, a newly amended transportation bill that could be more acceptable to Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could be the lone exception, Gazelka said.
Late Tuesday changes in the transportation funding bill written by Republicans who control the Legislature inserted some Twin Cities transit concessions into the measure in the hopes that Dayton could accept the bill.
Gazelka and other Republican senators met in private early Wednesday afternoon to determine their strategy.
Earlier, Gazelka and Dayton talked by telephone, including about the transportation bill.
The House and Senate on Tuesday each passed five of the 10 bills that make up a $46 billion, two-year budget proposal. Republicans put them up for votes after they said negotiations with Dayton were not moving along well.
Dayton has said he will veto each of the budget bills. Five are sitting on his desk, but his spokesman said that he will not veto them until his administration has examined them.