By: Michael McIntee, UpTake Reporter

There will be no special session to give thousands of Minnesotans relief on their rising health care premiums. A rare public negotiation between Governor Mark Dayton (DFL) and House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R) ended with both of them walking away.

Transcript

Dayton: Alright. We can’t have a special session next Tuesday because we can’t have an agreement even though the other three caucus leaders are agreeable to what we agreed to two weeks ago. Daudt: If you feel strongly about this Governor, you call a session. You can do it. Call it for next Wednesday and we’ll send you a bill. Dayton: I’m not going to call session without a prior agreement and I never have before. I’m not going to open the door for every possible amendment and the like. It will be mayhem. So you’ll be able to do that starting on January third which is evidently the way you want to proceed, so… we’ll see you then. Daudt: No I actually… I want to do real relief that will help January first. Dayton: No you don’t. No you don’t. You talk about being angered. You just set this up, made an offer I have to refuse so that you can avoid the blame for not doing the premium relief. Daudt: (looking at watch) OK, whatever. (walking away) That was about as productive as everybody expected.

Here is the entire public negotiation between Dayton and Daudt which took slightly less than 15 minutes.