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| Date: | May 24, 2011 | | Contact Name: | Susan Closmore | | Contact Phone: | 651-296-5712 | | Contact Email: | susan.closmore@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
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| SENATOR GRETCHEN HOFFMAN ON SESSION ADJOURNMENT |
St. Paul – The Minnesota Senate adjourned the 2011 legislative session Monday evening with all nine FY2012-13 budget bills on Governor Dayton’s desk awaiting his signature. Having compromised on greater spending targets as a result of the February economic forecast, Senate Republicans were able to reconcile the state budget deficit with available revenues, without raising taxes. Unfortunately, Minnesotan’s received no answers last night as to whether the Governor would sign or veto the bills since the Governor was not present at the Capitol for the end of session.
Tuesday, the legislature was told that the Governor vetoed all nine of the budget bills. Senator Gretchen Hoffman (R-Vergas) gave the following statement.
“This session the Republican-led legislature created of a balanced budget plan which contains $3 billion more in spending over the previous budget without raising taxes. This budget plan takes tremendous steps to foster a better environment for private sector job growth by streamlining the rate and speed of permit issuance, limiting the reach of government regulation in private market affairs and refraining from implementing excessive mandates on businesses and investors,” said Senator Hoffman.
“Unfortunately, it would appear that Governor Dayton will continue with partisan rhetoric, calling our budget an ‘all-cuts’ budget even after we have continually pointed out that we spent $3 billion more without raising taxes. He calls for ‘compromise,’ even though we have met him squarely in the middle between what the state spent in the last budget and what he wants to spend,” added Senator Hoffman.
“I continue to stand with the Senate and the House Majorities in that we will not raise taxes on Minnesotans to fund out of control government spending while pushing job creators out of our state. The Governor is convinced that we must take in more tax dollars but refuses to provide us details about what he would fund with that additional revenue. It’s time we set a budget that lives within its means while laying the foundation for job growth in our state and our budget does just that,” concluded Senator Hoffman. “The legislature will continue to work with Governor Dayton to find a balanced budget solution without raising taxes. I feel confident we will come to an agreement which will benefit all citizens of this great state.”
