Officials of the AFSCME state employee union say they will *not* re-negotiate after a Republican-controlled committee recommended earlier this month that the legislature reject a new two-year contract which had 95-percent support of union members. Governor Mark Dayton says Republicans’ stance is “all about the ideology of less government and cutting spending and lowering taxes, regardless of the consequences for the services that state government provides for the people of Minnesota.”
Republican Senator Scott Newman from Hutchinson responds wage increases in the proposed new contract rely on projected health insurance savings which might not pan out — meaning state employee unions would then “come back to the legislature and ask for us to back-fill the hole that they have created.”
Here are Gov. Dayton’s comments Tuesday:
And an earlier interview with Sen. Newman: