Dayton: Overdue payments to schools may be delayed again

DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton says he might not be able to meet his goal of paying back $1.4 billion in delayed payments to school districts next year.

Minnesota's next governor will face a projected $5.8 billion state budget deficit. Dayton wants to raise income taxes for upper earners, but his overall budget proposal is still about $890 million short.

During an interview Thursday on MPR's Midday program, Dayton said he'll look for additional spending cuts to close that gap. But he said he might have to delay the school repayment.

"You know if worse comes to worse, then I'd have to delay repaying some of that shift until the subsequent biennium," Dayton said. "So, it's very transparent, it's very clear, it's very straight forward."

Earlier this week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer claimed Dayton has a secret plan to raise more tax revenue from the middle class. Dayton denies having any such plan.