Tag: Gov. Dayton

Dayton: Republican claims about my vetoes simply aren’t true

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”

MN Supreme Court says Mark Dayton’s veto of legislative budget was constitutional

The following article by Rachel E. Stassen-Berger was posted on the Pioneer Press website September 8, 2017:

Credit: Steve Mullis, MPR

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday decided that Gov. Mark Dayton’s veto of the House and Senate budgets earlier this year was constitutional.

“We hold that the governor’s exercise of his line item veto authority … was constitutional,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea wrote. “This conclusion, however, does not end the matter.”

The justice wrote that the court does not believe it has the authority to order the Legislature funded, as did a previous district court, while the dispute goes on. Therefore it ordered Dayton, a Democrat, and the Republican Legislature back into talks with a mediator. Continue reading “MN Supreme Court says Mark Dayton’s veto of legislative budget was constitutional”

Minnesota Poll finds broad approval of Dayton

The following article by J. Patrick Coolican was posted on the Star Tribune website May 3, 2017:

Minnesota Poll: Approval rating of 62 percent is highest of governor’s political career.

Gov. Mark Dayton enters his final 18 months in office with the highest job approval rating of his tenure, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.

More than three out of five Minnesotans — 62 percent — approve of Dayton’s performance, according to the poll. It’s the DFL governor’s highest approval rating in a Minnesota Poll since he took office at the beginning of 2011, and also higher than he ever scored in the poll as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2006.

(See the poll results here.)

That’s likely to embolden Dayton as he grapples with the Republican-controlled Legislature over the state budget. Clashes over taxes and spending, transportation, health care and early education are certain to accompany the closing days of a session that ends on May 22. Continue reading “Minnesota Poll finds broad approval of Dayton”