'I didn't get here by blinking,' Dayton warns

With less than a month to go and few outward signs of progress, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton offered a message on Tuesday to GOP leaders who might expect him to cave as the deadline for adjournment nears:

"I didn't get here by blinking," he said.

The tough words come as legislators work on a flurry of high-profile issues that touch little on the state's $5 billion deficit: Gay marriage, gambling, redistricting, education -- all made appearances at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Dayton said lawmakers should get him their complete spending plan by May 6.

The DFL governor said legislative doings on the budget are approaching the "theater of the absurd."

Dayton said he submitted a budget 70 days ago, but that the Legislature has yet to follow suit.

GOP leaders say they have produced a budget -- and earlier than previous legislatures. Theirs has come in a series of separate, often divergent, measures, many of which have yet to be reconciled between the Republican-led House and Senate.

Legislative leaders said Dayton was in no place to set arbitrary deadlines.

"We're a separate and equal branch of government," said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo.

"We're not interested in jamming through a bunch of" bills to meet Dayton's needs.

House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, accused Dayton of "firing off comments that do little to advance productive debate."

Dayton said Tuesday that if legislators don't meet his deadline, his optimism that lawmakers can end the session with a balanced budget by May 23 "will start to wane."

The governor said lawmakers did not want to "own up to the reality of what a live-within-their-means budget" would do to the people of Minnesota.

Republicans, who have pledged not to raise taxes, said Dayton's budget is the one lacking reality. Dayton has proposed raising income taxes on high earners to help fix the deficit.

"Governor Dayton's budget doesn't add up," said Zellers. "He simply does not have the revenue to support his double-digit spending increases."