Dayton Enraged By DFL Move To Suspend Pay Raises
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The hefty pay hikes proposed for Gov. Mark Dayton's cabinet were already controversial when the State Senate met on Thursday.
But it was Dayton's fellow Democrats who voted to suspend the raises until July 1.
"That will give the legislature time I think to put the kind of thoughtful review into the study and the salary to make sure that it indeed is warranted," Sen. Tom Bakk said.
An infuriated governor says he was blindsided by the Senate vote, and knew nothing about it in advance.
He demanded an immediate meeting with all Senate Democrats -- everyone except Democratic Senate leader Bakk.
"I certainly learned a brutal lesson today, that I can't trust him, can't believe what he says to me and that he connives behind my back," Dayton said.
The governor spent much of the week defending the cabinet pay hikes. Now he says he will veto the bill suspending the raises, even though it also contains emergency Ebola funding and St. Peter Security Hospital improvements.
"To have the majority leader of the Senate come in and stab me in the back and blindside me is absolutely unacceptable," Dayton said.
Relations are so bad that the governor said Thursday he trusts the Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt more than he trusts his fellow Democrat Bakk.
"Now I know how President Obama feels. I'm confronted with two hostile bodies of the legislature, one who I believe I can trust -- Rep. Daudt -- and one who I now know I can't trust."
Republicans who had been highly critical of the cabinet pay hikes watched the political sideshow unfold, reminding Democrats that Dayton promised to be "unbound" in his final term.
"I believe he has said he is now a bit unbound now that he's not running for re-election, and it does seem we're getting a little Gov. Dayton unplugged here," Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, said. "And I don't really like what I see."
Dayton says he is willing to meet with fellow Democrat Bakk, but never again alone -- because he wants witnesses in the room.
