News

Dayton veto on Legislature should not impact Minnesota farmers

The director of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association says Governor Dayton’s decision to veto the Legislature’s funding should not directly impact farmers.

David Preisler tells Brownfield the issues Dayton wants to renegotiate with House and Senate leaders aren’t related to agriculture.

“What really comes off of the table that the Governor wants to negotiate?  He has laid out a few things that he believes are problematic and that he wants to see changed.  But at this point, it doesn’t appear that they would have a direct relationship with agriculture.”

Following a contentious special session, Dayton signed the state’s $46 billion budget bill.

He then line-item vetoed $130 million set aside to fund the House of Representatives and Senate over the next two years.

Preisler says the move is unprecedented.

“It will be interesting to see, just from a legality or constitutionality standpoint, on what happens with that.  We’ve heard from the majority parties in the House and Senate that they’re going to approach this with a legal challenge, so we’ll see what happens there.”

Dayton agrees the Minnesota Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the dispute, saying there isn’t case law directly applicable to this.