Dayton Vetoes Two More Bills

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Governor Mark Dayton vetoed two major budget bills ahead of a Saturday night deadline for final action on bills passed before the legislative session ended late Monday.

While he signed a state government finance bill, he vetoed an agriculture-and-environment budget bill. While the bill contained his initiative to require farmers to plant buffer strips, and funding to combat bird flu, it came under criticism from environmentalists for other provisions. He said he'll insist that the buffer strip and bird flu proposals pass during the upcoming special session.

Dayton also vetoed a jobs-and-energy budget bill. He said it provided insufficient funding for the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of Mediation Services, the Workers Compensation Court of Appeals and rural broadband.

A date for the special session has not been set.

Dayton is now proposing a tax cut in return for a scaled-back version of his plan for universal preschool for all 4-year-olds.   He is offering a $260 million, one-year temporary income tax cut if lawmakers approve $250 million in additional money for public schools, including $100 million for preschool that would go only to districts that choose to apply for it.

Dayton vetoed the session's main public school funding bill Thursday because lawmakers left out his universal preschool proposal.

Dayton says he'll provide more details Tuesday when he meets with House Speaker Kurt Daudt. He says Daudt and other legislative leaders he reached Saturday were interested but noncommittal. He says he wouldn't agree to the tax cut without a similar level of new education funding.