Done Deal: Dayton accepts Republican Offer; Roseville Lawmakers Unhappy

Minnesota’s legislators are heading back to work.

Gov. Mark Dayton and state Republican legislative leaders Thursday afternoon agreed on a preliminary budget and took the first steps toward ending the government shutdown.

During a three-hour meeting in the governor’s office, the parties agreed to a June 30 Republican budget proposal that would not raise taxes, but would borrow money to balance the budget. The deal will raise $1.4 billion by issuing state bonds against future tobacco revenue ($700 million) and shifting K12 education aid from 70/30 to 60/40 ($700 million).

In a tense meeting with reporters at the Capitol following the meeting, Dayton said he expects to call a special session for legislators and to pass a budget “very soon. Within days.”

Roseville’s three DFL state legislators weren’t happy with the breakthrough but understood why Dayton felt compelled to give in to Republican demands for ending the state government shutdown.

"I am very angry at the Republicans unwillingness to compromise," said House 54A Rep. Mindy Greiling, a 10^th term lawmaker. “The public is focusing on the shutdown instead of on the long-term ramifications of the Republican policy."

Greiling said the delay in payments to Minnesota school districts will mean they will have to do more borrow to cover their expenses.

"What the Republicans are insisting on makes me weep," Greiling added.

District 54 Sen. John Marty said, “The Republicans basically accepted their own offer.” He expects the governor to call the special session by either Monday or Tuesday. 

“They (the Republicans and Dayton) have agreed in principle, now they need to work out all the details,” Marty said.

Marty said he supported Dayton previously rebuffing Republican demands; he added he intends to vote against the budget settlement. Still, Marty said he won’t second guess Dayton now for changing course.  

“Dayton was put in an impossible situation,” he said.

While some social programs will take a big hit under the new stae budget, the reality is that recipients of some of those programs-including low-income parents using sliding-fee child-care assistance-are also being dramatically hurt because continuing assistance has not been available to them during the government shutdown, Marty said.  

House District 54B Rep. Bev Scalze called the budget settlement “unfortunate because we are not solving the budget problem.” Instead, the delay in fully paying Minnesota’s school districts is putting the problem off into the future,she said.

Scalze said, however, that the end of the shutdown will get state employees back to work and put projects such as the Rice Street bridge improvement at Highway 36 back on track.

Meanwhile, Dayton said he expected he and Republican leadership would work late into the night and through the weekend.

“This is an agreement that is difficult for both sides,” said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo. “There’s been some good discussions and some coming together on agreements for reforms.”

House Speaker Kurt Zellers (R-Maple Grove) agreed reaching a deal—as well as the shutdown—has been difficult.

“We are in an imperfect situation,” Zellers said. But in the end, “we’re focused on getting the lights back on and getting the government up and running again.”

Despite the agreement, Dayton reiterated his disappointment with the deal which he announced Thursday morning.

“I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to pursuade a legislative majority of the wisdom of my approach to raise taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans,” Dayton said. “In the absence of that,
however, this is an agreement today.”

Said Zellers: “Today was about making a deal that we’re disappointed in, but that’s done. None of us got exactly what we wanted. But we have a deal that will be done, a budget that will be balanced and a state that will be back to work.”

As part of the agreement, Republicans agreed to

Koch said she expected the budget to pass the special session.

“We’re working with our caucus. We need to hammer out final details in these bills but we’re confident,” Koch said. “We’re focused solely on making sure these bills are processed as quickly as possible.”