Dayton vs Minnesota Legislature...

This one has taken a very strange twist...

For those of you who need a review. Governor Mark Dayton was not happy with the some of the tax cuts in the recent budget agreement (which was ironically said to be a compromise between congressional Republicans, congressional DFLers, as well as aids of the Governor). The buzz was that he was set to use the line item veto to remove them, but was caught off guard by a "poison pill" that tied the tax cuts to funding of the Department of Revenue.

So the Governor decided instead to line item veto the budget for the legislative branch, and told them if they wanted their funding back, that they would have to agree to the changes he wanted.

The legislature went to court. The District Court agreed with them. Ordered the funding. Governor appealed, and the Minnesota State Supreme Court basically punted. They didn't overrule the first Justice. But they disagreed with him in part. Agreed in other part. Asked the sides to mediate, and then asked for arguments as to whether or not the Judicial branch had authority to "order" the funding.

So....

Governor Dayton and his legal team is now arguing to the MSSC that the Judicial branch "does" have the authority to order funding for the legislative branch, effectively asking the courts to overturn the "results" of his line item veto (where he cut out all funding for the legislative branch). In reality, they are now asking for the MSSC to allow the lower court ruling (which they appealed) to remain in place.

Meanwhile, the legislation is now arguing that the Judicial branch "does not" have the authority to order funding for the legislative branch... which would basically either force the Court to declare the veto itself to be "unconstitutional" (rather than just order funding) or it would force the Court to allow the legislative branch to become "unfunded" which would create a "constitutional crisis".

The reality here is that Dayton either played a bluff that he was not prepared to actually follow through with, or he played a power move that he never actually thought through. It would appear at this point that the Governor does not want to be held responsible if the actually legislative branch becomes unfunded (even though that is exactly what his line item veto did). He now looks to the courts to "save" him by ultimately undoing what he did.

Meanwhile, it does not appear that there is much incentive on the part of the GOP legislature to back down on the previously agreed upon budget. The leverage, at this point, appears entirely on their side.