Letter: Some services more 'essential' than others

• Hamilton

DON DAVIs/STATE CAPITOL BUREAU Rep. Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake watches as Dan Greensweig says that Minnesota cities have concerns a Hamilton bill could increase governmental liability if youth athletes receive brain injuries during organized sports. Hamilton said the bill should ease legal liability.

Talk about it

On Thursday, the majority in the House and Senate made another offer to Gov. Mark Dayton. We agreed to remove the tax cuts from bills passed during the regular legislative session and offered to spend an additional $200 million in areas such as higher education, public safety, education and the environment, along with boosting state aid mostly to cities and counties.  This is in addition to the earlier compromises on police officers, courts, K-12 education, agriculture, and other areas.

Gov. Dayton rejected the offer.

Dayton also rejected a proposal by the chairs of the transportation committee that would pass a transportation-funding bill that would keep construction going on summer highway projects, which would keep about 10,000 construction and state workers employed. He said that he would not accept one part of the budget before agreeing to an overall package.

I’m not sure what the governor is thinking. It appears that every time an offer is made, the governor moves further away from center. Many believe he actually wants the government to shut down so Minnesotans can feel the pain. Check out this link, http://scr.bi/lZbjkS for more.

The fact of the matter is a government shutdown is not necessary, and it is ridiculous to be talking about it when we have time to be called back into a special session to avoid this madness.

Take a look at his proposed list of essential services that are needed during a shutdown — a list that does not include payments to nursing homes and health providers. It’s puzzling to say the least.

On Wednesday, Gov. Dayton began to outline his priorities in the event of a state government shutdown. In a petition he filed in court, he listed areas within Minnesota spending that he deemed “essential.” Whatever was left off his list can obviously be considered non-essential areas by the governor.

Some of the essential services listed are truly essential — things like state troopers. Others the governor listed are not, like the gardener at his residence and a state-run golf course.

I find this especially troubling for two reasons. One, for the governor to prioritize his personal staff over those who are caring for Minnesota’s most vulnerable is flat-out wrong. Secondly, Gov. Dayton is spending way too much time focusing on a government shutdown when there simply is no need for it — if only he would call us back into special session so we can work on these items before the July 1 deadline.  But he must do it soon, as it takes a minimum of five working days to properly move bills through the committee process.

A gardener at the governor’s mansion is essential? Really?!

Tags: opinion, letters, hamilton, minnesota, legislature, politics, dayton