SAINT PAUL, MN— Today, Governor Dayton announced that after three months of discussions with legislative leaders, he would not be calling a special session. House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) released the following statement:
“This is a disappointing day for Minnesota. We leave 2016 with no bonding bill, no tax bill and above all no comprehensive transportation solution. A House DFL Majority will bring a robust bonding bill and middle class tax relief to the House floor for a vote in the first 30 days of the next legislative session.
The House Republicans put politics ahead of the interests of Minnesotans, betting their years long Trumpian tactic of dividing Minnesotans geographically will play well at the polls. I don't think it will. 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.
There were other issues that could not be bridged as well. The current bonding bill draft includes hundreds of millions of earmarked projects including a road to nowhere in Rep. Peppin's district. Ready to go projects like Highway 14 and 23 would be funded by following current Corridors of Commerce formula. I agree with the dozen current and former transportation chairs who wrote a letter last week decrying that process. Republicans refused to provide any further relief to workers being assaulted at the Saint Peter Security Hospital. And the months long promise of public hearings never occurred.
Minnesotans should rightly be frustrated that the legislature has not done its work.”
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