Dayton calls for budget responsibility

Posted at 4:50 PM on September 14, 2011 by Tim Pugmire (4 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Mark Dayton

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton appears to be growing tired of Republicans who blame him for unpopular pieces of the budget deal that ended the state government shutdown.

Dayton took some verbal swipes at his GOP critics today during a speech before the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce. He said the elimination of the market value homestead tax credit, for example, was something he did not agree with as a matter of policy, but he agreed to it in order to reach a budget compromise. Dayton said the GOP leadership insisted on the elimination.

"If you're grown up and you're responsible, you make decisions and you take the responsibility for the consequences of them, good or bad," Dayton said. "I have no respect for somebody who insists on having it their way, and then when it goes awry tries to blame me or anyone else. That's unacceptable."

After the speech, Dayton told reporters that he asked his revenue commissioner, Myron Frans, to look into the homestead credit issue and see what options are available for a remedy.

UPDATE

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, issued a written statement in response to Dayton's comments. Here it is:

"This year, the Republican-led Legislature passed a complete, reform-minded, balanced budget which didn't raise taxes on Minnesotans and job providers. The largest general fund budget in state history wasn't enough for Governor Dayton. He vetoed our budget and forced the longest government shutdown in recent U.S. history because of an insatiable desire to raise taxes and spend more."

"During Governor Dayton's shutdown, over 22,000 state workers were laid-off, construction projects were unnecessarily halted, and private sector spending was dramatically reduced because Governor Dayton wanted to raise taxes, grow government and spend more without regard for the fiscal realities facing Minnesota. Governor Dayton lecturing about budget responsibility is like Bernie Madoff lecturing about Wall Street reform."

Comments (4)

I have struggled to understand how one political party found so many people of limited maturity and intelligence. Governor Dayton put it nicely, the message is man up and accept the blame as well as the glory. The Republican sound bites don't make any sense; they should sit up and notice that maybe they should change their sound bites.

Posted by danno | September 15, 2011 7:40 AM

Ironically enough Gov Dayton is not accepting responsibility for signing the bill into law. He just keeps saying "I didn't like it but did it anyway". Plenty of "man up" to go around.
Homestead is something that should have disappeared a long time ago. Bring local expenses local. Get rid of property tax redistribution and we'll actually start seeing spending control and get the state out of our pockets.

Posted by Bill | September 15, 2011 11:22 AM

The GOP and the Tea Party remarks and actions make perfect sense when you realize they take their marching orders from the Koch brothers and their allies, the American Legislative Exchange Council - same as in about 15 other very messed up states these days.

The entire #shutdown and "#no new revenue mess were orchestrated attempts by corporations to take over Minnesota resources and gut any participatory democracy.

Minnesotans need to wake up and fight back, same as in Wisconsin. This is NOT a psychological fight. This is a fight against corporatocracy and any politician not telling you this isn't doing you any favors.

The media is VERY remiss in not reporting on the ALEC story in Minnesota and knew about it the entire session.

FOR SHAME!
http://paper.li/USuncutMN/1314159648?utm_source=subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=paper_sub#!tag-alecexposed

Posted by Virginia Simson | September 15, 2011 11:39 AM

Yes! Viginia!

Posted by Jamie | September 15, 2011 6:37 PM

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