The following commentary by Gov. Mark Dayton was posted on the StarTribune website September 26, 2017:
I didn’t leave legislators cash-starved or try to destroy a coequal branch. I just want to revise a tax bill to keep the state on firm fiscal footing.
Ever since I vetoed some of the Minnesota Legislature’s funding for the next two years, Republican legislative leaders have been screaming that I am trying to abolish their branch of government. They sued me, claiming that I had acted unconstitutionally by denying them enough money to “survive” until next February’s legislative session, when they will be able to restore their full funding.
In the Legislature’s brief filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court just last week, they again swore that my vetoes had denied them enough money to operate until next February. In addition, a group of Republican legislators wrote in these pages last Friday that “ … the governor used his line-item veto power to eliminate funding for the Legislature, effectively abolishing the legislative branch.” Continue reading “Dayton: Republican claims about my vetoes simply aren’t true”
