Our perpetually petulant governor - Part MMCCCXXVII

In 2011, Gov. Mark Dayton agreed in principle to a biennium budget compiled by the all GOP Legislature, only to inexplicably walk away from the deal at the 11th hour. When regular session expired, it was Dayton's purview as governor to call a special session. He refused, thus government shut down after the June 30th deadline expired. When Dayton went on a state wide demagoguery tour in July to throw the GOP under the bus, much of the public's reply was basically "Oh, government is shut down?" After a nearly three-week shutdown, Dayton essentially agreed to the same budget which he refused to sign before the end of regular session.

In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature was comprised of a Democrat majority in the Senate and a GOP majority in the House. Of the 201 legislators, 91 Republicans and 32 Democrats agreed to a biennium budget which didn't include Gov. Dayton's unreasonable request for massive Pre-K funding. Despite the bipartisan agreement in the Legislature, Dayton once again vetoed the budget and the regular session ended. But this time a special session was called, yet Dayton was rebuffed when striving for the aforementioned Pre-K funding. He eventually abandoned his demand and signed essentially the same budget he refused to agree to prior to the end of regular session.

So with 2017 being another budget year and scheduled end of sessions being slated for Monday, Gov. Dayton certainly wants to avoid another embarrassing setback, right? No doubt he's willing to sleep at the Capitol building to ensure he and the Legislature can have this budget all buttoned up by the end of the weekend, right?

Here is a post from the personal Facebook page of Rep. Peggy Scott (R-Andover):

Hold firm, Republicans. Moments like these are exactly why you were given back a majority in the Legislature.

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