Dayton: 'I Can Live With' Cuts To Agency Budgets Over Pay

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Mark Dayton says he "can live with" a GOP move to modestly trim budgets of a few state agencies in response to raises he granted department commissioners.

A vital spending bill in the House withholds $40,000 from three departments as offsets for raises. The Departments of Natural Resources, Health and Human Services have other funding at stake in the bill, which is why they were singled out.

Dayton said Thursday he wants to move on from the salary flap. That could be out of his hands because it remains a focus among Republican legislators. One House committee held a hearing on the sizable raises.

The Senate was due to vote Thursday on the stopgap spending measure and it's possible a salary counterstrike will be tacked on to that bill.