Minnesota governors have no power over constitutional amendments but despite that Gov. Mark Dayton has made his voice heard on the Legislature's moves to change the constitution.
When lawmakers approved constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage and require photo id for voting, Dayton symbolically vetoed them. Voters later rejected both amendments.
On Friday, after lawmakers approved a 2016 constitutional amendment to give the power over their pay to an appointed panel, Dayton neither signed nor vetoed the amendment legislation.
Instead, he let it move forward without his signature. The impact is negligible, even when he vetoed last year's constitutional amendments they still appeared on the ballot and if governor's neither sign nor veto bills after session they automatically become law.
But his lack of action could send a message about his feelings about the amendment.
In signing all the rest of the Legislature's bills, Dayton also let a measure raising the thresholds for audits of firefighters' associations become law without his signature. The measure passed the House and Senate on overwhelming bipartisan votes.
