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Minnesota legislative session continues

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May 1, 2012 at 8:35 am

Saint Paul, Minn (KNSI) - A soft deadline to adjourn the Minnesota legislative session has come and gone.

Lawmakers had hoped to wrap up their work by the end of April, but that didn't happen. No agreements have been reached yet on the bonding bill, the tax bill and the Vikings stadium bill. House Minority Leader Paul Thissen says the GOP Tax Bill under consideration would create a bigger budget deficit than state budget professionals have forecast for 2013.

"What the Republicans are talking about in their tax bill is prioritizing corporate tax cuts over repaying our schools because those corporate tax cut moneys are going to go out the door before we get to repaying our schools, and that is the wrong priority for Minnesota," Thissen said.

Thissen says DFL'ers and Governor Dayton oppose the current tax bill.

"I think the governor should be applauded for taking his stance on any number of issues this year, we don't want to make the deficit worse next year," Thissen said, adding, "We have a $1.1 billion deficit facing us next year. We have over $2 billion in schools that we have to repay and that's not even counting the inflation and the growth in our spending."

The House meets at 10 a.m. Tuesday while the Senate will convene later Tuesday afternoon.