Dayton demands special session to sign tax bill
updated at 3:00 p.m. with Hann comment and letter
DFL Gov. Mark Dayton warned Republican legislative leaders Thursday that he will not sign the tax bill passed on the final day of the 2016 session unless they agree to a special session to correct a $100 million error in the bill.
A special session would have to come together quickly, because the governor faces a Monday deadline for acting on the tax bill. Dayton has not yet met with House and Senate leaders to discuss the issue.
Dayton told reporters Thursday that a pledge from leaders to make the correction is not enough to get his signature. He said he also won’t call a special session to make the correction unless the agenda includes the additional spending and bonding that he outlined this week.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
“I’ve made it clear I’m not going to agree to a special session until my requirements are met,” Dayton said. “So it’s simple, one, two three. If they want to drag this out and play politics around it, that’s their decision. But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
The one-word tax bill glitch would make more charitable gambling establishments than lawmakers intended eligible for a lower tax rate.
House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Zimmerman, wants Dayton to sign the bill. He contends that a letter stating legislative intent would suffice until the correction is made.
Daudt told MPR News that such letters have been used in the past.
“That will just kind of instruct people to interpret the law the way it was intended and not technically the way it’s written,” Daudt said. That would give us time to come back either in a special session or regular session to fix that one word.”
Daudt’s staff pointed to two previous instances where letters of legislative intent were used, including a tax bill error in 2008.
But Dayton disagrees. He believes signing the bill would be a big mistake.
“We’re not going to run a risk of a $101 million error being put in statute,” Dayton said. “There will be people who will go to court to enforce that statute if I sign it. We don’t want to get in a protracted lawsuit.”
On the spending and bonding requirements, Daudt said he’s willing to meet with Dayton and hear him out. But Daudt noted the additional spending demands came the same day the governor signed the supplemental budget bill.
“If he didn’t like the level of supplemental spending in that bill he probably should have vetoed that bill,” Daudt said.
Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, wrote a letter of legislative intent Thursday related to the tax bill error, and he urged other leaders in the House and Senate to join him in signing it. Here's the letter: