Gov. Mark Dayton issued another ultimatum to Republicans in the Legislature on a special session, which he hopes can be held on Dec. 20.

On Tueday the governor sent letters and proposals to legislative leaders (and to the news media) calling for legislative leaders to agree to his proposals for a special session that would povide premium relief for health insurance owners who buy their policies on the individual market, that would pass a bonding bill that takes out a bunch of transportation funding the Republicans wanted last session and puts in a bunch of projects the governor wants, and fixes the mistakes in the tax bill that cause the governor to veto it last spring.

We’re just guessing the Republicans aren’t going to agree to some of that.

Legislators have been negotiating for weeks on the issues surrounding a special session. The issues are thorny and complicated, and the few times there has seemed to be progress is when the governor and Kurt Daudt et al. met face to face, without the media present. We don’t know why the governor isn’t conducting more of that kind of negotiating rather than publicly issuing a drop-dead deadline.