Dayton Signs Budget Bills Minus Funding for Legislature
St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - There will not be a state government shutdown this summer, but there could be another special session, or a court fight.
Governor Mark Dayton today signed the various spending bills that make up the state’s $46 billion dollar budget for the next year, and announced he would allow a $650 million dollar tax relief bill to become law without his signature. He did use his veto pen to kill a preemption bill that would have blocked local governments from enacting their own minimum wages and work rules.
Dayton also used his line-item veto power to remove $65 million in funding for the state House and Senate from a government appropriations bill. At a news conference Tuesday evening, Dayton says he took the action to force the Republican legislative leaders to return to the bargaining table to work on revisions to a number of the budget bills and the tax bill.
The governor says, if not for a “reprehensible sneak attack” by the Republicans, he would have vetoed the tax bill. He says a provision added to another budget bill would have left the State Revenue Department without funding for its operations if he killed the tax bill.
Republican legislative leaders are questioning the legality of the governor’s use of the line item veto in this situation, and whether his decision not to sign the tax bill actually prevents it from becoming law, which is often referred to as a “pocket veto.”