Dayton says ‘moment of truth’ at hand for Legislature

Challenging lawmakers to put their political lives at risk in order to preserve Minnesota for future generations, Gov. Mark Dayton told a packed House Chamber during his State of the State address Thursday night that Minnesota “is doing better than it has for some time,” but legislators face “a rare moment of great opportunity.”

Dayton cited the sacrifices made by Minnesotans during the Civil War as an example of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in order to save the union. He called upon legislators to draw courage from their example as they faced their own “moments of truth” during the final six weeks of the legislative session.

“The state of our state is good,” Dayton said. “Not everywhere. Not for everyone. But overall, Minnesota is doing better than it has for some time, and Minnesota is doing better than most other states. What we have been doing is working.”

From a $6.2 billion budget deficit in 2011 to the current $1.9 billion surplus, Dayton said the state’s economic success is a credit to the people of Minnesota. But these achievements, which he said are “seldom acknowledged” in the Capitol, came through investments in education, transportation and other areas necessary to compete in a global economy. He called for these investments to continue.

But where Dayton seemed to be doubling down on future investments, House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) sounded a more cautious note.

“We feel the state of the state is improving, and we think that’s a good thing, but as I’ve said in the past, I think it’s a cautious recovery and I think we need to be very careful with the surplus and our spending. We believe state government spending shouldn’t outpace family budgets and unfortunately that’s been the history in recent years.”

Predictably, House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Mpls) had a different take on the speech. He called House Republicans “the least ambitious legislative majority” he had witnessed and urged them not to cut programs simply to eliminate spending.

“(House Republicans) can recognize that with a $2 billion budget surplus that a $1 billion-plus cut to health and human services — to our most vulnerable Minnesotans — is not only wrong, but mean-spirited and bad for the state of Minnesota.”

Education

During his 2014 State of the State address, Dayton called for more investment in education and transportation, and he again cited those as two of his top priorities.

Dayton said cuts to education funding in the previous decade were still taking a toll, but that bipartisan improvements during his first term are something legislators could be proud of. He called for that progress to continue.

Dayton has proposed spending an additional $694.6 million above the February Forecast’s base amount for E-12 education in the upcoming biennium. He answered those who questioned the need for more education spending saying Minnesota ranks 24th among states in per-pupil expenditures for K-12 education.

“Our recent increases have lifted our standing, but our financial commitment to educating our children is just average, compared with other states,” Dayton said. “Just average is not nearly good enough.”

The governor also reaffirmed his support for tuition freezes for students at the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

Transportation

Dayton called improvements to Minnesota’s “aging and inadequate transportation system” his “second top priority” for the session. He said investments are  needed in better highways, roads, bridges and public transit.

Senate President Sandy Pappas and House Speaker Kurt Daudt listen as Gov. Mark Dayton delivers his State of the State address in the House Chamber April 9. Photo by Andrew VonBank

“For the past 25 years, those investments lagged behind what was needed to maintain them, much less to improve them,” Dayton said.

The governor’s transportation plan, which calls for nearly $11 billion in spending over the next decade, would fund repairs to the state’s roads ($6 billion), invest in local government transportation projects ($2.3 billion) and provide money for transit systems across the state ($2.92 billion). Dayton believes it would also create nearly 120,000 new jobs. 

Republicans have released a proposal to fund roads and bridges that’s higher than the governor’s plan.

“We’ve shown how to do that without a gas tax which we believe is incredibly important,” Daudt said.

House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin (R-Rogers) was surprised the governor didn’t mention his plan for a gas tax in his speech.

“I’m hoping he’s warming up to our plan,” Peppin said.

Bonding

Dayton acknowledged allocating General Fund dollars to pay for education and transportation programs would pit those interests against many others that were also deserving of funding. He said the bonding bill he proposed this week would provide the money needed to pay for those efforts.

“Some people are telling us to ‘Just wait until next year’ for my $842 million bonding bill,” Dayton said. “That just doesn’t make sense. Interest rates remain low; we have capacity for the debt service within existing guidelines; and many of those and other improvements are urgently needed.”

Dayton renewed his call for both chambers to cooperate with his bonding recommendations that reinvest in local and statewide capital projects both in the metro and Greater Minnesota over the next two years.

Daudt said there is a $1 billion backlog of capital investment projects that haven’t been started. Waiting another year isn’t going to delay a proposed clean water project in southwestern Minnesota, he said.

“It’s a huge priority for us; it affects our members and their residents. … I’m not sure doing a bonding bill this year would get that project done any faster than if we fund the remaining portion of that project next year.”

House Republicans have indicated they will wait until 2016, slated as a bonding year, to take up those projects. But Thissen said it would be a mistake for the House to ignore those needs at an opportune time.

“We have passed a bonding bill nearly every year over the last three decades,” Thissen said. “Interest rates are low. We have projects we know need to be done right now. The sense in waiting for next year is not clear to me just as it was not clear to the governor.”

Time to act

Dayton ended his speech warning that history would judge whether lawmakers had left Minnesota a better place for their children — a state with a more opportunity and a better environment. While some of the decisions lawmakers must make could be difficult, Dayton said the state’s “continued success won’t just happen. We must make it happen.”

He said investments now would improve what the state has and what it is missing.

“This is our moment of truth,” Dayton said. “Minnesota’s future is now in our hands.”

Sue Hegarty and Hank Long contributed to this story