Capitol View®

Dayton targets GOP budget targets

Dayton reacts to GOP budget plan from tommy scheck on Vimeo.

Untitled from tommy scheck on Vimeo.

Gov. Dayton said the level of budget cuts that would be needed under the GOP House and Senate targets will "force drastic cuts to health care, services to senior citizens, and police and fire protection; and they will cause higher tuition and property taxes."

Dayton also criticized the House GOP plan to cut income taxes. Republicans claim their income tax cut is targeted at lower and middle income Minnesotans but Dayton says Revenue Department estimates show the plan mostly benefits wealthier Minnesotans. House Republicans are proposing to lower the income tax rates for the bottom two income tax brackets which would also benefit top earners.

"To give a tax cut that provides a higher benefit to the wealthiest Minnesotans and pretend that it's targeted to lower and middle income Minnesotans is simply not truthful and that lack of candor is really destructive to the kind of public policy debate that we really should be having here."

Dayton also said he wants committee chairs to hold at least one additional hearing to gather citizen input and the input from his agency heads.

Republicans haven't yet filled in the blanks for their budget solution.