In a conciliatory breakfast speech, Gov. Mark Dayton asked business leaders Friday for their assistance and support in solving the state's $6.2 billion budget gap.
"I don't expect all of you to like my budget next week, but I ask anyone with ideas to bring them forward," he told members of the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce. "I ask for your insight, guidance and business expertise. Most of all, I ask you to believe in Minnesota and reinvest in Minnesota and create more jobs."
He delivered a condensed version of the State of the State address he gave on Wednesday and referred to the veto he issued Thursday not as the opening round of a battle royal with Republicans in the Legislature, but as part of the process of solving the state's staggering budget woes.
"I'm not interested in fighting with the Legislature at all," Dayton said. Referring to a GOP legislator's assertion that his first veto amounted to "game on," Dayton added, "I'm not interested in playing games with the Legislature or anybody else. We face far too serious a fiscal situation."
Declining to say how his proposed budget will mix increased taxes with program cuts, Dayton said "nobody is going to be more critical of the budget I submit next Tuesday than I will be...It's the best I could come up with."
He said grappling with the numbers in the budget the past few weeks was "a very sobering experience."
Although DFLers like Dayton have historically been viewed with suspicion by many business owners, chamber members endorsed his plan to use a bonding bill, in part to improve Minnesota's transportation infrastructure. In a poll, 62 percent said they support a bonding bill, while 34 percent opposed it.
Calling transportation "one of the three or four top business climate issues facing any state," Dayton said he opposes increasing the state's gas tax "because it doesn't produce enough revenue."
