ST. PAUL, MN—Governor Mark Dayton vetoed the supplemental budget bill (SF3656) and the tax conformity/school funding bill (HF947) Wednesday, blocking the first income tax cut in nearly two decades, funding to help deputy registrars hurt by the MNLARS mess, funding to help avert a 7 percent cut for disability services, school safety funding, reforms to address vulnerable adult maltreatment and abuse, and more. In the final week of the legislative session, lawmakers addressed nearly 70 percent of the specific concerns outlined by the governor, and provided up to $84 million in new funding for schools ($225 million in total when flexibility measures are added), meeting the governor more than halfway on his key priorities and concerns.
“Politics before people. That’s what Governor Dayton did by vetoing these bills,” said Rep. Dan Fabian, R-Roseau. “These bills delivered on critical needs for Minnesotans like school safety, additional funding for our schools, critical tax relief for hardworking taxpayers, Section 179 conformity for farmers and agribusiness, help for our deputy registrars, preventing a cut to folks who take care for people with disabilities, and more. With a stroke of the veto pen, Minnesotans across our state were negatively impacted.”
“The significant reforms to address senior and vulnerable adult abuse I worked on all session are gone with this veto. Meaningful investments in education including more funding and measures to keep students safe are gone with this veto. Low-income working families who rely on federal child care subsidies are hurt by this veto. The first income tax rate cut in nearly twenty years and critical tax conformity are gone with this veto,” said Rep. Deb Kiel, R-Crookston. “It seems our governor has chosen to play a political game and the people of Minnesota lost.”
Reps. Kiel and Fabian said also shared their disappointment of the veto because of the average $96 per pupil increase it would have provided to schools when all of the bills passed in the final days of session were taken into consideration.