Dayton, GOP reach budget deal, on ‘fast track’ to ending shutdown
Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 6:07 pm
- 9 Comments
Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders emerged from more than three hours of negotiations Thursday with the “framework” of a budget deal that would end the state’s 14-day-old government shutdown.
If all goes as planned, the shutdown could end within the next few days, Dayton and the leaders said.
Dayton sent a letter to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch Thursday morning saying he’d concede to most of the demands set forth in their June 30 proposal. Among those items were two major one-time revenue sources: the shift of $700 million in payments to public schools and borrowing another $700 million from the state’s tobacco settlement fund.
The governor was also forced to drop his signature proposal to increase taxes the wealthiest Minnesotans. However, the governor did set forth a few conditions.
Namely, he told the legislators he wanted them to stick to their public statements that agreements must not include any social or policy issues, which crept into negotiations as the shutdown neared. He said a $500 million bonding bill would be necessary, as well as increases of $50 per pupil in school payments to offset the education payment delays. In addition, Dayton wanted $10 million to offset tuition hikes to higher education and to restore funding for the Department of Human Rights and the Trade Office.
The details of what the final budget will look like are still unclear and Dayton, Koch and Zellers agreed the solution isn’t a perfect one.
“We’re spending more than we wanted to,” Koch said during Thursday eventing’s press conference from the capitol. “At the end of the day, yes, we had to compromise … It’s a deal we can all be disappointed in. But it’s a budget that will be balanced. I don’t know that we’re all happy at all. None of us got exactly what we wanted.”
Koch said he believed the deal has the votes it needs to pass the legislature, but noted the bonding aspect will require bipartisan support in both bodies.
“There’s no good or easy way to take care of $5 billion deficit,” said Dayton, who continued to speak against a “lights on” bill to temporarily end the shutdown. “I’m disappointed I couldn’t persuade the Legislature on the [increased] taxes … I would come to a midpoint in terms of spending level. We’ll be very close with the final agreement … I think the people of Minnesota won today.”
Dayton said he now plans to work around the clock to end the shutdown.
“I’ll be here all weekend,” he said.
9 Comments
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 7:49 pm
Every time you lower taxes on the top 2% and the corporations…the middle class gets the bad news…..
Thanks Gov. Dayton
I could have voted for that hockey dad if I wanted to gut our way of life….
Comment posted July 14, 2011 @ 8:30 pm
From Reuters: “At the end of the day we had to compromise. None of us got all of what we wanted,” Zellers told reporters. … The deal closes a $1.4 billion gap between the governor’s proposed budget and the Republicans’, half by delaying school aid payments and half by issuing state bonds against future revenue from a settlement with tobacco companies. … Dayton had proposed a budget of about $35.7 billion, with some tax or fee increases, none of which were included in the framework deal. Republicans had opposed any tax increases.”
Fuck this. You know whenever a Republican says “we had to compromise”, they say it with a twisted smile knowing they won the battle but are desperately trying to not show it. The Republicans got everything they wanted out of this, and very rich in Minnesota won’t have to pay one penny more in taxes.
In the end, this doesn’t really solve anything either, it just borrows against future revenue to pay the bills right now. Delaying school aid and stealing from the tobacco fund will cause ye another painful deficit down the road.
This stinks. It’s wrong, and it’s a shameful deal.
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 8:01 am
Simple solution to this mess – vote the bums out!
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 8:02 am
I really don’t like the borrowing against future revenue either. The one thing though is the $500M bonding bill and the no lay-offs of state workers and other Dayton conditions. If it works, revenue will bump up from more people working. Then in 2012 we can get rid of the republican control of the legislature.
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 8:16 am
@Cathy – I hope you are right on the bonding bill and layoffs.
The raging cynic in me says that people by election day 2012 will just not remember this and keep on voting they way they have been.
I am quite disappointed in Gov. Dayton, Sen. Bakk, and Rep. Thissen. While they did not exactly throw their staunchest supporters under the bus, they sure gave us a shove in the direction.
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 8:37 am
@Mike W., they will only forget if we let them. Let’s work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 8:39 am
Speaking of “thrown under a bus,” I wonder how the “Christian” “right” will feel about Koch, Zeller & Co. selling out their beloved social policies for a pile of $$$ for the rich? That should be an interesting conversation.
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 10:33 am
Voting the bums out is how we got into this mess. In the 2010 election, people were so focused on dumping incumbents, no matter who they were, that they didn’t pay any attention to who they were voting in. Change for change sake is stupid. So we ended up with a bunch of green ideological fools who have no clue how to work with each other.
Comment posted July 15, 2011 @ 12:37 pm
Actually, Dayton did a good job of getting the message out. He also, saved jobs and got the millions to create new jobs. And he stopped the extreme right social agenda of the republicans in their tracks. Unlike: FL,MI,WI,OH, LA, Dayton was able to stop the attempts of the republican to suppress voter rights, to intrude on women’s rights to health care choices and to lay off 15% of the work force to pay for millionaire tax cuts. It is clear, the republicans (with ALEC setting the agenda) will serve their corporate masters and suppress democracy to secure “forever” power. Dayton, stopped the onslaught of republican injustice on MNs. Now it is up to the voters to stop the repug agenda from spreading. This rethug legislature is clearly protecting the luxuries of the rich while willing to tax the basic needs(food, clothing, shelter) dollars earned by workers. The voters have the choice. We begin taking our country back in WI. And the battle cry is: Benton Harbor, MI. The town is a fiefdom for an Emergency Financial Manager and is truly the poster child for TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. In addition, the CEO of Whirlpool, warned the people of Benton Harbor, that if they didn’t stop protesting their state of suppression and embarrassing his company, that he would move his jobs away. Imagine that. A corporate CEO feels free to “threaten” a democratic society in the US of America with economic harm, if they exercise their right to free speech and assembly.
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