Politics & Government

Mack: 'We Owe it to the State to Get Things Wrapped Up'

Gov. Mark Dayton said Friday he is willing to call a special session on Monday, continuing to make progress toward a state budget deal.

Gov. Mark Dayton appeared on Minnesota Public Radio Friday afternoon, and said he is willing to call a special session Monday morning, but first needs to read all nine of the unsigned legislative bills.

Dayton gave his negotiators a deadline of 10 p.m. Friday to have the deals in place.

While Dayton has said he’s happy with , he understands that not all Democrats share his zeal.

“It may be there are some [bills] they find they can support,” Dayton said, referring to the K-12 education bill. “[And] there will be bills that have bipartisan support. The tax bill, I wouldn’t vote for, either.”

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Rep. Tara Mack, (R-District 37A), Apple Valley, said she’s glad to see progress has been made in the state budget discussion, and that it looks like there will be a solution without a tax increase.

She said she wishes some other provisions could have been included, such as the 15-percent reduction in state workforce and other education reforms, but said it seems clear that not everybody is going to get everything they want out of a state budget deal.

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"But that’s the nature of compromise," she said.

Mack did say she was concerned that the state could be vulnerable to some of the same issues in the future because of the compromise.

“I’m not sure that the final agreement is going to have some of those reforms that we need," she said.

She also said she’s “not a huge fan of the school shift,” in reference to giving schools 60 percent of their aid payments during the current school year, rather than the 70 percent it’s set at now; the school aid shift was an item in the Republican party’s June 30 budget proposal to Gov. Mark Dayton.

But, “I think we owe it to the state to get this thing wrapped up with some expediency and get state workers back to work,” she said.

Mack said she has tried to remain as engaged in the budget developments as possible, despite having a baby on July 5. She said she’ll continue to communicate with people and with the activity at the Capitol as much as possible.  

She also said she wouldn’t be 100-percent committed to a budget agreement until she hears all the details.

“It’s not the perfect solution to me, but considering all the different factors involved I think it’s very promising,” she said.

While he is expecting resistance, Dayton said Friday he was confident that the “rough edges and details” would not be enough to derail negotiations or extend the shutdown.

Dayton also said he hopes to provide back pay to the 22,000 state workers laid off on July 1, but he did not confirm whether this would happen for sure.  

The governor is scheduled to appear on Almanac on Twin Cities public television at 7 p.m. Friday.


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