Dear Neighbors:
There are now only five days left in the legislative session. As discussed in my most recent legislative update, early last week the Republican majority abruptly cut off negotiations with the Governor and began sending budget bills to him for a certain veto. Below is some final information on why these bills were wrong for Minnesota. Now we need to move forward - and quickly - to get the session wrapped up.
One of the key sticking points in negotiations is Republican leaders' insistence on advancing more than 600 policy provisions that are unacceptable to the Governor. Most of these are unrelated to the budgets under negotiation. Please consider reaching out to legislative leaders to urge them to focus on negotiating budgets - rather than other provisions - and on compromise with the Governor:
Speaker Kurt Daudt (651-296-5399 and rep.kurt.daudt@house.mn)
Leader Paul Gazelka (651-296-5774 and sen.paul.gazelka@senate.mn)
Vetoed Republican Budget Bills
The budget bills passed by the Republican majority would have done a disservice to our state. The Governor has made clear for weeks that bills of this type would not earn his signature, and I'm glad that he did in fact veto them. I was the last DFLer to speak on the final budget bill, for Public Safety, and I took the chance to summarize what the bills show of the priorities of the majority - click here to see the video:
In addition, I described my own concerns in my legislative updates of April 27 and May 4. And the Governor's reasoning is provided in the veto letters below:
I'll continue to keep you posted. Thank you for the honor of serving our community,
Dave Pinto
State Representative, District 64B
321 State Office Building
(651) 296-4199
www.house.leg.state.mn.us/64b
Sign up for legislative updates at http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/join.asp?id=15444