The Minnesota House and Senate adjourned for the weekend on Friday and won’t reconvene until 11 a.m. Monday, one week from their Constitutional deadline to adjourn.

If they don’t have a balanced budget by Monday, May 19, they’ll be forced into a special session.

“We are only breaking to be fishing,” Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth told reporters on the House floor Friday. “That is the only reason. We will all be out there together or in some way, shape or form. So if you hear we’re not meeting, it’s because of fishing. It’s not because anything has broken down.”

Demuth acknowledges movement in the negotiations is slow-going, but says all the budget pieces are in place for everything to fall into place quickly once they agree on budget targets.

Although the governor and legislative leaders will be at the Governor’s Fishing Opener in Cross Lake on Saturday, the governor said they would continue talking up there. “We’ll be talking about fishing, but there will also be some side talk [about the budget]. Look, we got a week. It’s time to cut bait and get this thing done.”

While the governor and legislative leaders express optimism, political analysts have their doubts when asked about the chances of a smooth finish by a week from Monday. “Well, it’s slim to none and we’re approaching none,” says Brian McClung, former communications director for Republican Gov.Tim Pawlenty.

Former DFL state senator Ember Reichgott Junge agrees with McClung that meeting the deadline won’t be easy.

“The problem right now is they have not put together their budget targets,” she said in a segment recorded for “At Issue with Tom Hauser.” “Now, what does that mean? It means the committees don’t know how much they get to spend. So there’s a lot of work left to go in a very short time. So I think that minimizes the chances you’re going to end on time.”

There are many significant disagreements between Republicans and Democrats, including the issue of continuing to allow undocumented immigrants to access state health care. The amount of money spent on the program is already projected to bloom to $550 million, after an initial projection of $196 million.

“The amount of money we’re talking, even if we balloon it as you say, is less than one percent of the human services budget. In fact, it’s less than a quarter of a percent.”

Republicans say those dollars add up quickly. “It’ll be a real sticking point to Republicans because their retort to that is at a time when we have a state budget deficit in the future are you going to spend limited resources on health care for illegal immigrants?”

Lawmakers and the governor also have disagreements over funding for non-public school students and unemployment insurance for hourly school workers, along with differences about changes to the paid family and medical leave program and earned safe and sick time.

If the budget isn’t balanced by May 19, the next real deadline is June 30, when state funding will stop flowing to any programs not approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor.