Dealing with the intractable.

Today Governor Mark Dayton made one more offer to Speaker Zeller and Senate Majority leader Koch.  Dayton said he would accept the June 30th offer made by the Republicans with some conditions.    Dayton announced this during a presentation at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.  Larry Jacobs does a fantastic interview with the Governor over this decision that you can listen to here.

Governor Dayton said,  “When you are negotiating with people who are intractable it’s very difficult to get a negotiated reasonable agreement.”  Dayton said the State shutdown could not go on. “I am willing to agree to something I do not agree with.”

He spoke about the newly elected members of the House and Senate  (both here and in Washington DC)  with their ideology of unbending views, and explained what a dangerous combination ignorance and arrogance there is in today’s political landscape.  He said he learned that first hand when George Bush invaded Iraq.

No one is happy about this agreement, but my i do believe the Governor is looking at the big picture.   In 2012 the entire House and Senate is up for re election.  Hopefully  the people of Minnesota will be more thoughtful and elect representatives who will work for the people instead of protecting the top 2% of wage earners at the expense of the other 98% of us.  Then Governor Dayton could get tax fairness back into the revenue stream that he campaigned on.  In the mean time, the can has been kicked down the road once again with a little “shift.”