Gov. Mark Dayton has been talking about a special session for about two weeks and it seems like that thought is now close to becoming a reality. Going against what he has been saying for those two weeks, Governor Dayton said he was open to expanding the agenda of the special session. Until Thursday, Dayton has been maintaining the special session be limited to providing relief to those areas of the state hit hard by severe storms in June.

Republicans have been asking for a repeal of the warehouse tax and both parties have wanted to fix a tax on repairs to farming equipment. On Thursday, Dayton called the farm equipment tax “the biggest mistake” of this past year’s session and it needed to be addressed in a special session. He still has no plans to address the warehouse tax, which will not go into effect until April 2014.

Dayton has maintained the Legislature can deal with the issue when it comes back to St. Paul in February. The date for the special session has been tentatively set for September 9. However, Dayton wants assurances from the Republicans the session will be limited to one day.

Even though Democrats control both houses of the Legislature, they need Republican support to suspend rules and limit the session to just one day. Without that support, the session could last a few days and could feature debate on any topic.