It was just a month ago when legislative leaders and the governor sounded confident they could pass a state budget into law by the May 19 legislative deadline during the regular session.

Two weeks ago, after that deadline came and went, they then sounded optimistic that a one-day special session could be held within just a few days. Fast forward to this week, and there was hope voiced for a special session either Wednesday or Thursday. Now there’s talk of maybe Saturday or Monday.

“We are making progress,” said DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy just before walking into another meeting with Governor Tim Walz. “It is as slow as molasses.”

Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said the latest slowdown is due to complicated bills like health and human services and transportation.

“So, for these very long bills that take a huge amount of time,” Hortman said. “It’s complicated, there are a lot of specialists who have to review the language, not just politicians.”

“I thought today, Wednesday, maybe was going to be a special session,” Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth said. “No date has been set, but I’m very optimistic it could happen at any point in time when the governor’s ready to call that.”

The latest so-called “deadline” for a special session is Monday, when thousands of additional state workers will get notices of potential layoffs if there’s a partial government shutdown. “I’m obligated by state contracts to send out over 28,000 potential layoff notices,” Walz said after meeting with lawmakers Wednesday. “I think that causes great uncertainty for folks. I think it adds unnecessary chaos.”

Minnesota’s state government is no stranger to special sessions or pushing the envelope on potential government shutdowns. Since 2001, this is the fifth time the state has had to send out layoff notices because of prolonged budget stalemates. There have been nine special sessions in budget years since 2001, ranging from a couple of one-day sessions to a 51-day session. Government shutdowns actually happened in 2005 and 2011 under Republican and Democratic governors.

Hortman’s holding out hope for a one-day special session as early as Saturday. “That’s the hope that it will be one day, and it would be nice if we weren’t working through the night,” she said. “If we could have reasonable-length debates on these bills.”