"I am pleased that these agreements finally include $5 million to help Minnesotans with disabilities find and maintain employment, and to help prevent Minnesotans with mental illness from becoming homeless. They also add consumer protections to the Energy Intensive Trade Exposed (EITE) rate provision that will help the taconite and forest products industries in northeastern Minnesota. Finally, they add a provision giving the City of Rochester flexibility to use its local sales tax to support the Destination Medical Center economic development project.
These resolutions to the bills I vetoed three weeks ago have been extremely difficult. Last fall, Minnesotans elected a divided state government, led by people with very different views about the role of government in our society; the optimal levels of state revenues and expenditures; and the policies and programs, which they should support.
"The sign of a true compromise is that no one is happy with it. Proponents and opponents of various policies across the political spectrum will be as unhappy with certain features as we, who ultimately had to accept them to avoid another government shutdown, the indefinite layoffs of 9,500 state employees, and severe disruptions of important public services.
