Budget Battle Intensifies as Dems Await Dayton's Proposal

It’s back to the drawing board for state lawmakers trying to balance the budget.

Republican legislators pushed through a bill on a party-line vote that would cut the deficit by $900 million. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, who criticized the proposal throughout the process, vetoed the bill within hours of its passage. Without enough votes to override the veto, lawmakers will have to set to work drafting a new plan.

Even though the final result was predictable, the proposal was contentious in the weeks leading up to the vote. Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-District 44), of St. Louis Park, accused the Republicans of using the proposal for political purposes instead of working in earnest to arrive at a solution.

“If all they want to do is play political games, than they can pass another budget without consulting the governor and waste everyone’s time, as well,” Latz said. 

Democratic Rep. Steve Simon, also of St. Louis Park, agreed with the senator.

“This bill is a political bill,” he said of the Republican proposal. “Not a serious budget bill.”

In a news conference explaining the veto, Dayton echoed arguments that Latz, Simon and other DFLers made during debate on the bill. He accused the Legislature of “extreme rashness” and said the cuts would have only put more of the tax burden on local governments, forcing them to increase property taxes.

Latz Republicans for bypassing committees that would have normally looked more closely into how the proposal would affect the areas in their purview. After Thursday’s vote, Latz added that Republican legislators were shirking on their responsibilities because the bill required Dayton to make about $100 million in cuts from state agencies.

“It’s the Republican majority copping out of making decisions,” he said.

While the fate of the $900 million proposal may have been clear, the way forward after its demise is not. Dayton will release his own budget Tuesday and already anticipates criticism.

Said Latz: “At this point, I don’t know where the Republican majority’s going to go. I’m going to wait for the governor to prepare a budget.”

Rep. Simon added that he too was looking forward to the governor’s proposal, though he said at this point Dayton has been pretty tight-lipped, so the representative said he wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.

School employee pay at issue as well

The budget proposal wasn’t the only contentious issue lawmakers tackled last week. The Senate also approved a bill that would impose a two-year freeze on public school employees’ pay.

Like the budget proposal, the sides also break down along party lines. Unlike the budget proposal, however, the pay freeze has support from at least some DFL members on school boards seeking to manage ever-shrinking budgets.

Latz, though, remains staunchly against the idea. Not only would it freeze teachers’ pay, he said, it would also freeze the pay of paraprofessionals, “lunch ladies making $12 an hour” and others at the bottom of the pay scale.

Like other DFLers, Latz frames the dispute as one over local control. Freezing public school salaries across the state would unilaterally take budgeting decisions out of school boards’ control, he argued.

But there is also a strong debate over the power of education unions. The bill would remove a deadline for when teacher contracts must be negotiated and eliminate the penalty for schools that don’t meet the deadline. Latz said that would lead to more strikes. Although the bill would bar employees from striking over salaries, Latz said nothing would prevent them from striking over non-salary benefits.

“It completely eviscerates the collective bargaining process over wages, over compensation,” he said.

Here’s what’s happened this past week with other bills authored or co-authored by your legislators:

Sen. Ron Latz:

• Proposed a bill that would authorize “exclusive liquor stores to sell certain clothing and memorabilia with a specific name, brand or identifying logo of the exclusive liquor store.” SF0323, to be introduced Feb. 14 and referred to the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee.

Rep. Steve Simon

• Proposed the House version of Latz’s liquor store bill, HF0448. Introduced Feb. 10 and referred to the Commerce and Regulatory Reform Committee.
• Proposed a bill that would create a redistricting commission consisting of four judges selected by leaders from each party, as well as a fifth judge selected by the other judges. HF0406 was introduced Feb. 7 and referred to the Redistricting Committee.

Here’s how your legislators voted this past week on key proposals before the Minnesota Legislature:

SF0056—NO: Latz (PASSED 36-29: A bill to freeze school district and charter school salaries, remove the contract negotiation deadline and penalty and lift some requirements on how school districts can spend their money. A companion bill was introduced in the House Feb. 7.)

HF0130—NO: Latz, Simon and Rep. Ryan Winkler (PASSED 37-28 in the Senate and 68-61 in the House, vetoed by the governor: A bill to make about $900 million in cuts.)