Thursday, June 01, 2017

2017, man

Gov. Mark Dayton explained his rationale for defunding the legislature yesterday:

Oops, that might not be from his press conference
Pardon the technical difficulties. Let's just say that Mr. Met's gesture was about the same as the governor's however:
The DFL governor on Tuesday vetoed the Legislature’s operating budget in an effort to force Republican legislative leaders to reopen disputes over taxes, education policy and immigration. That followed a decision by Republicans just days earlier to approve a bill that would have terminated funds for Dayton’s Department of Revenue had the governor not signed off on their tax cuts.

It was a surprise strike and counterstrike that soured the end of an otherwise productive legislative session. For Dayton and Republican leaders, it set up a political and legal dispute that could linger for months.

“The Minnesota Constitution gives me the authority to line-item veto appropriations,” Dayton said Wednesday. “It doesn’t qualify that I can line-item veto these but not others. It’s blanket authority.”
Dayton can believe what he wants, but I expect the state Supreme Court to strike down what Dayton did. If one branch of government can zero out the operating budget of another, then we no longer have a constitutional form of government in Minnesota, and the courts will recognize that.

What a year.

2 comments:

W.B. Picklesworth said...

The broad story right now seems to be, "How can we, Dems, having failed to hold onto most levels of power via appropriate electoral processes, exert our power over the electorate and those they elected via the aforementioned electoral processes."

or...

"We still get to be in charge because shut up."

Gino said...

its not much different than whats happening at the national level, so dont expect the courts to follow the law.