Gov. Mark Dayton had not one but two chances to provide tax relief for families, homeowners, job creators and job seekers in this year's legislative session. Republicans worked hard to compromise with the governor and to earn his support. But with a stroke of his veto pen, Dayton turned his back on Minnesotans who needed relief from the state.
Even more troubling, in the final month of session the governor did not even bother to show up at meetings with the Senate majority leader and the Tax Committee chairs for discussions on the tax relief bill.
The last meeting the governor attended with Republican leaders and the Tax Committee chairs was on April 17. In that meeting, he proposed a tax bill with $50 million in tax reduction tails for the next biennium, 2014-15.
Using those requests from the governor, the authors revised the bill -- resulting in overall session fiscal tails of $42 million for 2014-15. This compromise fit well under the governor's proposed number, and was less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the $36 billion biennial budget.
The compromise bill was created to help stimulate economic activity, which would generate revenue that could erase the fiscal tails. It seems that Dayton is fine with spending tails as long as they result from bonding, but not if they fund tax relief and private-sector activity.
After all of the compromise and consideration for the governor's priorities, it is disappointing and disheartening to have him veto our compromise jobs-and-tax-relief bill. The final bill had bipartisan support in the House and the Senate and contained provisions brought forward by Republicans and Democrats:
• Access to low-interest loans for 16,000 students and 1,000 first-time home buyers, along with Small Business Administration loans.
• Sales tax exemptions for Minnesota nursing homes.
