Former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale
Former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. REUTERS

Former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson will announce a newly formed committee to resolve the state's budget crisis at a news conference Tuesday.

The committee will also include former politicians and businessman and has the support of Gov. Mark Dayton, MinnPost reported. The state's budget has been shut down since Thursday night as Dayton and the Republican controlled legislature have been unable to find a compromise on closing the state's $5 billion budget gap.

In Carlson and Mondale, who represented Minnesota for 12 years in the Senate, the committee will have a bipartisan team of respected politicians figures no longer beholden to re-election campaigns. Carlson stressed that they were seeking a third way that offered an alternative to the current binary of Democrats seeking tax raises on the state's highest earners versus Republicans pushing for wholesale cuts to services.

We need ideas that are rational to the great middle ground of Minnesotans, Carlson said. He added that the needs of constituents should supersede party orthodoxy, charging that legislators have the obligation to represent their district and the state of Minnesota, not the caucus.