On July 19, an important legal case I have been following came to its first decision. A Ramsey County judge found Gov. Mark Dayton’s attempt to veto the state legislature’s funding as violating the state constitution. Vowing to appeal, the governor is now taking his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. While President Trump may get all of the media attention with his actions good or bad, I think this case right here in Minnesota is much more dangerous and not getting the attention it deserves.
Here’s the background. On May 30, after heated budget negotiations between Democratic Gov. Dayton and the Republican-controlled state legislature, Dayton signed the last budget bill presented to him. However, he used his line-item veto power to cut several measures out of the proposal. Most controversially though, that included the legislature’s funding, effectively cutting off its ability to operate after July 1.
This is not an action befitting a democracy. Most disheartening, Dayton’s action was explicitly made to try to force the legislature to some sort of deal. Since our state senators and representatives can only meet so many times a year, it requires the governor to bring them back for a special session. If this action manages to win in the Minnesota Supreme Court, it would essentially allow the governor of Minnesota to hold the legislature at his mercy until they pass a budget or any bill that satisfies the governor.
While this case is headed for the Minnesota Supreme Court, I hope the justices can see what kind of precedent this would be setting. Allowing the governor to nix the state legislature’s funding would turn this state into a one-man show, with the governor as king. Our Founding Fathers designed the Constitution, which Minnesota and the other states largely imitated, with the goal of balancing powers so one branch of government could not dominate the others. Allowing the governor to essentially dissolve the legislature would be an obvious violation of that principle.
To be clear, this is not a partisan issue for me. If the governor was a Republican, Independent or any other affiliation, I would still be against this veto action. I do not want the governor of Minnesota to be able to subvert the state legislature for any reason. Both the governor and the state legislature are elected by the people of this state to carry out their respective functions. The balance of powers between them is supposed to ensure business is carried on smoothly and the people’s wishes are respected.
It is often said the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and I would agree 100 percent that’s true in this situation. Even in the midst of what could be a historical constitutional case here in Minnesota, much media attention is focused thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C. President Trump, though quick in some of his decisions and to lash out at those he dislikes, has not attempted to destroy the powers of another branch of government. He has attacked the courts for overturning some of his actions but didn’t attempt to dissolve them.
It discourages me something like this could be a partisan issue. We should all have an interest in maintaining a balance of powers, if not for the principle but for the truth that those powers we trust to a governor we like would also be in the hands of one we don’t. I hope we can see past our party affiliations and see the threat to democracy Dayton’s action constitutes. Many dictatorships and failed states started out by sidelining their legislature’s powers. Let’s not join them.
Connor Kockler is a Sauk Rapids-Rice High School student. He enjoys writing, politics and news, among other interests.
