Gov. Mark Dayton's quest as he sees it, as he enters his final 18 months in office, is the same as it's been for more than six years: to stabilize Minnesota's finances and prevent a return to the massive deficits he inherited when he took the state's top political job.
But now, locked in an unprecedented court battle with the Legislature, the DFL governor finds he has a lot of explaining to do. He's trying to convince Republican legislators that they should reconsider a host of tax cuts he believes are a threat to the state's future financial health. He's trying to persuade a judge that he had the authority to line-item veto the Legislature's funding in order to force the issue. And he's trying to assure Minnesotans that he created this mess in order to keep the state out of a much bigger one in the future.
"Everyone's focused on the [court] case like it's a chess board," Dayton said in an interview last week. "And I would like to be much more focused on the issues, have public attention focused on the issues: Why did I do this?"
The main issue, according to Dayton, is that the $46 billion, two-year budget the Legislature passed and Dayton signed in May jeopardizes Minnesota's recent track record of building up funding reserves and bucking national trends by producing surpluses rather than deficits. While Republican legislative leaders contend that the state's strong position demonstrates a need to cut taxes and share the wealth, the governor fears for a less bountiful future.
Dayton said he's worried about what would happen if a national economic downturn is paired with federal policy shifts that force states to carry a bigger burden for health care and other costs. That could easily erode the state's $1.9 billion in rainy-day funds — and Dayton's fiscal legacy in the process. He intends to make the issue front and center in next year's legislative session, his last as governor.
"In any kind of moderate to serious economic downturn, $2 billion goes quickly," Dayton said. "So I'm going to really challenge the Legislature next session to do what is necessary to put our fiscal house back in order."
Making his case
First, there's the lawsuit — and plenty of other items on a packed agenda.
Dayton is the first Minnesota governor to strike funding for the state House and Senate, a maneuver he said he was forced into when GOP legislative leaders linked the governor's signature on the tax bill to funding for the state Department of Revenue. He pushed back by signing all the budget bills and the tax bill, but vetoing legislative funding.