Governor Dayton says Republicans “hate public schools,” vetoes K-12 bill, sends legislature to special session

capital_flowersGovernor Mary Dayton took no prisoners today, lashing out at Republicans for refusing to give an additional $125 million to K-12 education in the final hours of the legislative session that ended at midnight. The Governor was quoted as saying that Republicans “hate public schools.”

The K-12 Bill that passed both the House and Senate allocated an additional $400 million to K-12 from the previous biennium’s budget (a 1.5% increase in the per pupil expenditure for schools.) PreK scholarships for low-income children were also increased by $30 million in the final budget.

The Governor vetoed the K-12 bill this afternoon and told reporters at a press conference other bills may be on the chopping block as well.

The House recessed at 12:00am after passing all bills with the exception of the Legacy funding bill which ran out of time in the Senate, and a $107 million bonding bill which ran out of time in the House.  Governor Dayton stated today that both bills were important in a special session.

It’s also possible that transportation and tax relief bills– which were dropped from final negotiations– could come back in a special session.

$42 billion in new spending did pass both Chambers before the deadline, up from $39.6 billion in the previous biennium.