The end of this year’s state legislative session is approaching fast. But it’s still not certain whether Minnesota legislators will have budget bills passed before a May 19 deadline, area legislators said.

“A lot of negotiations are still going on,” said Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent.

Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, said he thought it was possible that there could be a special session this year, depending on how quickly the Minnesota House of Representatives and Senate could pass a budget.

“What I could see happening is what happened not too many years ago,” when legislators had a brief special session to pass bills, Dahms said. “It’s not the direction we like to go.”

Approving a Minnesota state budget for the next two years is a key goal of the current legislative session. The regular session ends at midnight on May 19.

“We have basically seven days left,” Dahms said. At this point, he said, “We’re waiting to get (spending) targets agreed on by the House, the Senate and the governor.”

Legislators use those spending targets to help finalize bills that are going through the conference committee process, Dahms said. Conference committees are where state lawmakers resolve the differences between House and Senate versions of bills.

“We’re still discovering what’s actually in the bills,” Swedzinski said.

How soon the legislature gets spending targets to help shape budget bills could determine whether a special session is needed, and how long that special session lasts, Dahms said.

“There’s a lot of different things that go into these targets,” Dahms said. “There’s a lot of different opinions and a lot of negotiating has to be done.”

Minnesota needs to have a balanced budget by midnight on June 30, to avoid a government shutdown, Dahms said.

Swedzinski said there were “a number of issues across the board” as legislators try to pass omnibus bills. In one example, he said, an energy bill with “a lot of bipartisan support” ended up having provisions changed.

Dahms said the budget going forward would probably have spending cuts in several areas. “We’ve got to be fair to everybody,” he said. However, Dahms said he did have some concerns about the approach Gov. Tim Walz was taking to reducing state spending. Walz was trying to shift more costs onto Minnesota counties and cities, he said. “It doesn’t help anybody in the long run.”