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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

Dayton’s budget plan to focus on children

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Dayton Jan23
Gov. Mark Dayton talks to reporters about his budget plan after a speech to the Children & Youth Issues Briefing. Tim Pugmire MPR/News

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton said today that he wants to spend more than half of the state’s projected $1 billion budget surplus on state services for children, youth and families.

Dayton is set to announce his two-year budget proposal on Tuesday. It will include a plan he outlined earlier in the week to spend nearly $100 million on child care and dependent tax credits.

During a speech to the Children and Youth Briefing event in St. Paul, Dayton said he’s already hearing complaints about his proposals. He cautioned the large group of advocates not to fight among themselves for the limited money.

“Most of you believe passionately that your approach is better than others, the best of all,” Dayton said. “But if it gets into the kind of fierce infighting that prevailed a couple years ago, in terms of allocation of funds, I think you’re going to do harm to yourselves and you’re going to do harm to the people you’re serving.”

Dayton said his proposal will direct $372 million to children through education programs. He said $154 million will go to human services programs, with half directed to children and families and the other half to the elderly and disabled.

After the speech, Dayton gave reporters a few more specifics. He said his budget proposal will also direct money to early childhood education scholarships, pre-kindergarten programs and an expansion of school breakfast programs.

After enacting statewide, all-day kindergarten two years ago, Dayton said he wants to continue building on efforts to close the racial and economic achievement gaps in schools.

“They’re solutions, but they’re not salvations, because there’s just so much else going on in these children’s lives and these families’ lives that are detrimental to their health and their growth that we really need to take a broader, more comprehensive view.”

UPDATE

Dayton’s press secretary, Matt Swenson, sent out a correction on the governor’s numbers. He said spending for human services will be $160 million, including $44 million for children. The revised breakdown is $372 million for children through education, $44 million for children through human services and $100 million for child care tax credits. That means $516 million of the surplus is directed to children.