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Dayton lays out his demands for potential special session

Gov. Mark Dayton on Wednesday laid out a lengthy wish list to state lawmakers that he said must be met before he’ll agree to sign into law a $259 million tax cut package passed last month or call the Legislature into special session.

Enumerated in a five-page letter to House and Senate leadership, Dayton’s demands include funding for metropolitan transit, additional higher education spending and specific additions to the $1 billion bonding bill agreed to — but not passed — in the session’s final minutes May 22.

Gov. Mark Dayton speaks to the media during a Wednesday news conference where he announced his conditions for calling a special session. Photo by Andrew VonBank

The governor also wants lawmakers to fix a drafting error in a gambling provision included in the omnibus tax bill that would result in the loss of $102 million to the state’s Minnesota Vikings stadium fund, and to restore an $800,000 tax exemption for the Minnesota State High School League.

“These are my requirements,” Dayton said during an afternoon news conference. “Not to satisfy me, but for the needs of Minnesota.”

MORE Read the governor’s letter to lawmakers

WATCH The governor's news conference on YouTube

Only the governor can call the Legislature back into session outside of its constitutionally prescribed meeting time. All four caucus leaders would need to agree to his terms in writing, Dayton said, before he’ll call a special session.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) told reporters Wednesday that his caucus will readily support both tax measures Dayton requested and urged him to sign the tax bill ahead of its Monday deadline.

“I don’t want the governor to feel like he can’t sign the tax bill because there is disagreement on those two issues,” Daudt said. “Because there is not. I think we just want to be clear about that. We will fix them as expeditiously as possible.”

MORE Minnesota’s history of special sessions

Dayton’s requirements for metropolitan transit funding and additional capital investment borrowing items could be a tougher sell with Republicans, however. Daudt said he assumed the governor “is going to be reasonable” in accepting that all of his stipulations won’t necessarily find consensus among House and Senate leaders.

 

Dayton’s demands

House Speaker Kurt Daudt, right, responds to the governor’s conditions for calling a special session during an impromptu press conference Wednesday. Photo by Andrew VonBank

In his letter, the governor criticized lawmakers’ inability to pass a comprehensive transportation funding package or a bonding bill during the recently-concluded session. 

“Instead, the House Republicans’ bonding bill put $300 million of the General Fund surplus into a one-time appropriation for a handful of earmarked projects,” he wrote.

WATCH The speaker's news conference on YouTube

The House and Senate will need to reconcile their differing views on funding transportation before he will call lawmakers back,  Dayton said — though he conceded he would “reluctantly accept” one-time funding for transportation that included dollars for Twin Cities mass transit.

Included among his other requirements are:

  • the inclusion of $66.7 million in bonding for a University of Minnesota Health Sciences Education Facility;
  • $63 million in additional operating support for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system;
  • $34 million in borrowing for design and construction costs of a new Fort Snelling Visitor Center;
  • an additional $28 million in bonding for building maintenance across the MnSCU system;
  • $22.3 million in Fiscal Year 2017 for additional staffing at the St. Peter security hospital (as well as an extra $76.6 million in the 2018-19 biennium); and,
  • $20.5 million in additional spending on the Minnesota Investment Fund and Job Creation Fund.

In a statement, House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Mpls) backed Dayton’s conditions for a special session.

“We are supportive of Governor Dayton’s parameters for a special session and agree that we should work to reach consensus on a long-term transportation package,” he said. “That was everyone’s top priority heading in to session and it would be a failure if the House Republicans walked away from a compromise.”

Dayton said he hopes lawmakers can meet in the next few weeks; Daudt said legislators could “potentially” meet as early as next week.

It would be the second consecutive year Minnesota legislators met in special session.

 


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