Almanac: At the Capitol

Lawmakers and the governor will go back behind closed doors tonight, but the optimistic tone that echoed through the Capitol is growing softer. The past few days it seemed they were all making quite a bit a progress and could maybe wrap this up early. The governor essentially gave up on his use of the healthcare access fund. Democrats offered the governor his request for a cap on property taxes. It seemed they had about $300 million worth of budget cuts worked out, but now that may not be the case.

The harder thing to assess is the tone, but I've talked to many insiders today who say leaders and the governor are not as close as we thought to a deal. They do not rule out the same scenario as last year where there is no global deal and everyone walks away from the table. Unalloting is coming up a lot. Again, that may not be a bad deal for the Pawlenty who can show the base he is cutting big government.

But the House Democrats need to deliver. They promised education, healthcare and property taxes. Many of those big issues are caught up in getting a deal with the governor. The dust up over what a governor's staffer did or didn't say to a transportation conference committee isn't helping things either. One senator said their caucus meeting today indicated they are not close to closing a deal and mood was pretty pessimistic.