Dayton declares he won't call special session

Funding for a light rail line has derailed plans for a special session that would have addressed three key issues left unresolved during the 2016 session: bonding, taxes and transportation.

After an approximately 30-minute meeting on Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton said he and legislative leaders could not reach agreement on all issues needed for the state’s top-elected official to call legislators back to St. Paul to finish work not completed earlier this year.

“Given that the disagreements remain what they were at the end of the legislative session three months ago, I’m not going to call a special session; I’m not going to pursue it any further,” Dayton said.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) called Dayton’s decision to walk away “sandbox politics, not leadership. It’s time to stop acting like children and we shouldn’t throw our sucker in the dirt and walk away.”

When leaders met last Friday, an agreement had apparently been found on a $995 million general-obligation bonding package. Additionally, more than $250 million in tax cuts would have been rectified, including relief for farmers, college graduates with student debt, and veterans. A bill containing them was pocket-vetoed by the governor in June over a one-word error that would have cost the state roughly $100 million in revenue to the state’s Vikings stadium fund.

“The tax bill and bonding bill would be pretty beneficial to lots of Minnesotans,” Dayton said.

“Minnesotans from all over the state should be disappointed there isn’t tax relief, there isn’t road and bridge money,” Daudt said. “It’s wrong for the governor and Democrats in the Legislature to hold up funding for those programs that we all agreed upon to try and get something that’s controversial.”

WATCH Video of Senate DFL/Gov. Dayton media availability on YouTube

The sticking point in negotiations continues to be $135 million in state funding needed for the proposed Southwest Light Rail Transit project between Eden Prairie and downtown Minneapolis.

Daudt said last week that House Republicans have no appetite for the project, while Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) indicated his caucus must have the project as part of a special session agreement.

“I think Southwest light rail is dead,” Daudt said Thursday, adding the project still has pending lawsuits and other issues that have not been fully vetted. “There's a large number of Minnesotans, including Democrats, who do not support Southwest light rail.”

WATCH Video of House/Senate Republican media availability on YouTube

He added it would be a “dereliction of duty” to not look at ongoing operating costs, which he said would be $39 million annually.

Dayton said he’ll see if there are any other options to fund the project. “The longer it’s delayed, the cost keeps going up.”

Bakk, who suggested letting metro-area counties raise the money needed to pay for the state share of the project, said he’s been in the Legislature for 22 years and said it is “amazing” how much congestion has increased in that time. “What are these metro-area highways going to look like 20 years from now unless we find some alternatives to get people off the highways?”

House Speaker Kurt Daudt, right, addresses the media Aug. 18 after Gov. Mark Dayton said he is no longer seeking to call a special session. Looking on is Senate Minority Leader David Hann. Photo by Paul Battaglia

House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Mpls) was not at the meeting, but issued a statement on the continued impasse. “Republicans will have to explain why refusing to allow metro counties to pay for their own transportation needs is more important than cutting taxes for families and investing in roads and bridges across the state. It's like cutting off your nose to spite your face and it makes no sense.”

Daudt took further issue with the governor’s suggestion earlier this year that he wouldn’t hold the tax bill hostage.

“The governor needs to show some leadership and say, ‘Yes, let’s work on what we can agree on,’ instead of casting all that aside because I can’t get what I want with Southwest light rail,” Daudt said.

Dayton reiterated what he wrote June 1 that no special session would be called without an agreement on taxes, supplemental budget spending, bonding, and transportation, including funding for metro area transit.

“It’s all about politics; it’s about putting something on some people’s re-election brochures saying, ‘We killed Southwest light rail,’” Dayton said. “Meanwhile the highways get more congested and there’s no alternative being proposed.”

“I think politics came into it from the governor’s perspective,” Daudt said.

Dayton said he intends to put forth a tax bill and bonding bill early in the 2017 session with many provisions that were in the 2016 bills.