ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s elected officials have just four days to prevent a government shutdown, but they don’t have a budget deal yet.

A meeting between subject-area experts in health and welfare programs is scheduled today.

It’s unclear when Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders will resume negotiations on the state budget.

Sunday’s talks broke up abruptly without word on where things stood.

Without a new budget, most of state government would close on Friday, stopping road construction, closing state parks, suspending driver’s license exams and sending home tens of thousands of state workers. It would be Minnesota’s second government closure in six years, but this one would reach more widely than the partial shutdown of 2005.

A Ramsey County judge is expected to rule this week on how the state would proceed in a shutdown. She is considering the courts’ and governor’s authority to continue critical services without legislative appropriations.

Sunday’s meeting started with a more upbeat outlook. Dayton went into the room saying he was “optimistic” and “hopeful.”

“I hope we can continue making the type of progress we’ve made the last two days,” he said.

The meeting was over within an hour and 15 minutes.