Daily Digest: The horses’ mouths
Good morning, and welcome to Monday, the start of another work week. Here's the Digest:
1. A group calling itself the Association for Government Accountability is set to announce a lawsuit today over Gov. Mark Dayton's veto of funding for the House and Senate. The Star Tribune had the good idea to let Dayton and Republican legislative leaders state their own cases in the paper Sunday. Here's part of what house Speaker Kurt Daudt and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka wrote: The governor has presented us a false choice: undo the compromise he personally agreed to or he will eliminate the Legislature. His actions will result in a costly, taxpayer-funded and unnecessary legal battle that he is sure to lose. It has been said on the Star Tribune’s editorial page before that Dayton considers former Gov. Rudy Perpich a role model. Perpich is known for amending or rescinding his vetoes after further consideration, and we urge the governor to follow his lead. (Star Tribune)
2. And here's some of what Gov. Dayton had to say: I don’t want to permanently defund the House and Senate. I’m not engaging in some petty retaliation for the Legislature’s last-minute shenanigans. What I am doing is defending the integrity of the state of Minnesota: Our state’s financial integrity, the integrity of our state’s professional teaching standards and the integrity of the way decent Minnesotans must treat other decent Minnesotans if we are all to succeed together. (Star Tribune)
3. One reason the governor and legislative leaders are at odds with each other more than a week after the special session ended? The deal they reached in the closing hours of the regular session was just an outline. Unlike the previous agreements governors and lawmakers have signed before calling lawmakers back for overtime — with detailed spreadsheets and hundreds of pages of bill text to be passed as-is — there were just a few scant lines with no clarity on what the remaining budget bills would contain. The vague agreement left plenty of wiggle room for both sides to exploit. The result has been a prolonged slog to work out the details of a new spending package, dragging out a special session days longer than intended. (AP via Star Tribune)
4. The trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez continues at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul Monday, when attorneys for both sides of the case are expected to whittle down the jury to its final numbers: 12 members and three alternates. Opening statements are also expected to begin sometime Monday afternoon. Yanez is charged with one count of second-degree manslaughter for shooting Philando Castile. He also faces two felony counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. (MPR News)
5. After a yearlong federally approved stay in his retirement date, Maj. Gen. Richard Nash will be stepping down from leading the Minnesota National Guard this fall. Replacing Nash, who won a federal reprieve in his mandated retirement last year, will not be easy. He has been the state’s adjutant general since 2010 and the man who was drafted to the U.S. Army Infantry in 1972 has served with distinction, officials say. “General Nash has provided superb leadership for the guard and the people of Minnesota. His devotion to our guardsmen and women and their families has been incomparable,” Gov. Mark Dayton said in a statement. (Pioneer Press)
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