A Supreme Court decision upholding Governor Mark Dayton’s vetoes forced Republican lawmakers to tap reserves to keep the legislature running through February, and they fired political shots at Dayton as they did it. Payments will not be made on the new Senate Office Building at least until the legislature goes back into session, and House Speaker Kurt Daudt says, “I am not looking under my couch cushions to find a way out of that for the governor. He needs to understand that his decisions do have consequences.” Democrats warn the state’s bonding rating could suffer.
Republicans also decided legislative staff will not do routine work for the governor’s office while the dispute continues. Daudt says he will not ask legislative staff to do work for a governor who vetoed funding for their salaries, adding, “If the governor doesn’t appreciate the legislative branch, then why are we working for him?”
Dayton vetoed funding for the legislature to try to force Republicans to rescind just-enacted tax breaks, which he says “will jeopardize Minnesota’s future financial stability.”