(UPDATED) Minnesota Shutdown Day 5: Gov. Dayton, GOP Leaders Make Little Progress Tuesday

Update: Tuesday, July 5 at 5:40 p.m.: Day Five of the Minnesota state government shutdown produced little progress toward resolution. Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP lawmakers met for the first time since the parties called for “a breather” last week.

At odds are a $1.7 billion difference between the budgets proposed for biennium 2011-13 and, more specifically, how to close it.   

Republican leaders asked Dayton again to call a special legislative session to pass a lights-on bill that would provide temporary funding and allow the state government to resume operations for an additional 10 days.

“The shutdown was unnecessary,” Senate Majority leader Amy Koch (R-Buffalo) told reporters assembled outside the governor’s office. “We want the parks open and construction going.”

But while Dayton called the talks “constructive” and said he would consider “anything” to achieve progress, his stance on the lights-on bill remained unchanged. With Republicans sticking to its $34 billion-dollar budget, Dayton said, he isn’t hopeful.

“We have the same gulf between us that we have always had,” Dayton said Tuesday.

Owing to the complexity and size of the K-12 Education and Health and Human Services bills, Dayton said they would receive special scrutiny this Wednesday and Thursday.

Dayton said he reached out over the weekend to a handful of moderate Republicans, but wouldn’t divulge which legislators he contacted, to break the budget impasse.

The parties are scheduled to meet again Wednesday afternoon in the governor’s office.

First Post: Some of Minnesota’s brightest political minds have put together a bipartisan committee tasked with devising a solution to the state’s $1.7 billion budget gap and ending the state shutdown.

The committee, which will begin its work as early as Wednesday, was created by former Minnesota politicians Vice President Walter Mondale, Gov. Arne Carlson and U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger.

“We were trying to find people with superb professional backgrounds and exemplary roles in impartial public leadership,” Mondale told reporters Tuesday morning at Minneapolis City Hall.

Members of the committee include:

• Steve Dille; Co-chair (former GOP state senator)
• Wayne Simoneau; Co-chair (former DFL state legislator)
• John Gunyou (city manager of Minnetonka)
• Jay Kiedrowski (former Finance commissioner under Gov. Rudy Perpich)
• Jim Campbell (former CEO of Wells Fargo)
• Kris Johnson (former vice president of Medtronic)
• Jim Schowalter (current Minnesota Management and Budget commissioner)

“This is as good a group as could have been assembled," Carlson said "With John Gunyou and Jay Kiedrowski, in particular, we certainly have two of the best finance people in Minnesota history, as far as I’m concerned."

Carlson and Mondale each stressed the importance of finding a quick solution to the budget impasse—both for the state and people of Minnesota.

“Our fear is that large sums of money, large interests will come into Minnesota and cause a freezing of attitude and make it very difficult for compromise to become a reality,” Carlson said.

Mondale added, “We understand that thousands of people depend on Minnesota’s ability to resolve this crisis quickly.”

Neither Mondale nor Carlson will serve on the committee. Their role was one of creation and sponsorship.   

“We’re not in this to negotiate,” Carlson said. “We’re in this to provide a third solution. I would anticipate the ultimate support of the both parties.”  

Carlson said he expects the committee to come up with a workable solution no later than Friday. Whether legislators and the governor will heed any recommendations offered from the group is an open question.

The following is a list of other July 5 articles about the shutdown:

Alexandria Echo Press: Shutdown notebook: Closed parks first place people see shutdown
Fox 9: Arsonist Strikes Gov. Mark Dayton’s Former Home
Minnesota Public Radio: ABM launches shutdown ad campaign
Minnesota Public Radio: Lawmaker gets earful along parade route
Pioneer Press: Mondale, Carlson to weigh in on state government shutdown
Politico: Tim Pawlenty shutdown ad: 'Pawlenty won'
Salon: The roots of Minnesota's staring contest
Star Tribune: Sunny for the 4th, but still no thaw
Star Tribune: Time apart hasn’t lessened the rigid divide
Wall Street Journal: Minnesota Shutdown Continues; GOP Meets at Capitol

For a list of all Richfield Patch articles on the shutdown, click . This article will be continually updated with more coverage of the day's developments.