Ag and environment budget bill fails in Senate

In a dramatic blow to a fragile budget deal, the Minnesota Senate Friday afternoon failed to pass a controversial Agriculture and Environment bill. The vote was 33-32, but a bill needs 34 votes to pass.

The vote now puts a budget deal between Gov. Mark Dayton and House Republicans in jeopardy and revives the possibility of a partial state government shutdown on July 1.

A majority of Democrats, mostly representing the metro area, objected to the bill because they said it rolled back environmental protections. Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said he was upset with a provision that abolished the citizens review board at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

“I think everybody in this room cares about state employees and that they are not laid off. We all care about that,” Marty said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to have long complex negotiations. We get out a red pen. We sit down with the governor, and say these are things the Senate wouldn’t live with. Take them out. Period.”

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Marty and several other Democrats bucked both their majority leader and Dayton by voting against the bill. Dayton met privately with them Thursday night to personally plead with them to pass the bill and end the threat of a shutdown.

Throughout the debate, the bill’s author Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, also told lawmakers that they should keep the shutdown in mind.

“If we don’t pass this today we are in imminent position of laying off state workers in all of these departments and a partial government shutdown which I don’t think is a good thing for Minnesota and I don’t think it’s a good thing for the people of Minnesota,” he said.

Leading up to the vote, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said he would need support from Senate Republicans to pass the bill.

Several, including Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, joined him.

Bakk told reporters Thursday night that if the Senate failed to pass the bill, he would have to go back to the drawing board and start negotiating the bill again with Dayton and House Republicans.