Dayton: Vetoed tax-relief bill from GOP was irresponsible ...

Republican legislative leaders are outraged and disappointed that Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the second tax relief bill they sent to him last week, but the governor says they shouldn't be surprised.

"I told them I wasn't going to sign it because it violated fundamental principles of fiscal responsibility," Dayton said at a St. Paul Downtown Airport news conference Tuesday, May 15, before he and top DFL lawmakers took off on a post-legislative session fly-around to Duluth, Moorhead and Rochester.

The bill he vetoed Monday would have provided $46 million in tax relief, mostly for businesses. It was a top Republican priority.

They pared it down after the DFL governor vetoed their first tax-cutting bill May 4 because it would have

Governor Mark Dayton announced to the assembled media at the State Capitol in St. Paul that talks concerning the end of the session issues will continue, on April 30, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

increased the projected $1.1 billion budget deficit by $145 million in the next biennium.

The second bill had a lot of job-creating tax breaks in it that Dayton liked, but it also included a statewide business property-tax freeze that would have added $73 million to the budget shortfall.

With the veto, Senate Majority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, said Dayton "has earned the title 'Jobs Killing Governor.' "

House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said GOP lawmakers changed the second tax bill to accommodate the administration's wishes. Calling the veto "disrespectful," he said it "erodes my trust and confidence in Gov. Dayton and his administration."

But Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said Dayton made it clear

in private meetings with GOP and DFL leaders in the final week of the session that he would not sign a tax bill that increased the deficit. "Why they decided to put a poison pill (the property tax freeze) in the tax bill ... is just a mystery to me," he said.

House Minority Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, joined Dayton and Bakk in the flight. They planned to take credit for passing what they consider the two most important bills of the session: the Vikings stadium bill and a $496 million public-works bonding measure. DFLers put up a majority of the votes cast for both bills.

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