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2016 session goes sine die, but will loose ends mean a special session?

House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, left, and House Speaker Kurt Daudt have a heated discussion during May 22 debate of the omnibus capital investment bill. Photo by Paul Battaglia
House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, left, and House Speaker Kurt Daudt have a heated discussion during May 22 debate of the omnibus capital investment bill. Photo by Paul Battaglia

The words “sine die” had barely been uttered before legislators started talking special session.

When the 2016 legislative session began less than 11 weeks ago, lawmakers knew they had their work cut out for them. Beginning on the latest start date in recent memory due to Capitol construction (with no running water and only portable toilets), leaders weren’t convinced  they find agreement on the session priorities of transportation, taxes and bonding.

A bonding bill still seemed possible in the last minutes Sunday before the constitutionally mandated midnight deadline, and Gov. Mark Dayton said Monday that he hadn’t given up hope on a transportation compromise until the final hour of session. But a sticking point in transportation negotiations — state funding for the proposed Southwest light rail line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie — also derailed the bonding bill at 11:57 p.m. when the Senate amended the bill just as the House adjourned sine die.

 

Unfinished business

Nevertheless, House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) said Monday that the session had been “successful” overall, including the passage of a $182 million supplemental budget and $257 million tax bill, which he called “true compromise bills.”

House Speaker Kurt Daudt said Monday he was pleased with passage of the omnibus tax bill and the supplemental spending bill, but was disappointed that the bonding bill did not pass. Photo by Paul Battaglia

Daudt asked Dayton to call a meeting of leadership and a special session to address the unfinished bonding bill – and advised House members to stay in St. Paul in case the governor agrees.

“I think we owe it to Minnesotans to meet and talk about this as leaders,” Daudt said. “The longer we wait, the more difficult it gets to get to an agreement.”

However, as of mid-afternoon Monday, Dayton couldn’t say whether he will call one.

“They knew they had a deadline at midnight last night; they didn’t meet that deadline,” he said. “In the haste of the final moments there, democracy was not well served and the public was cut out.”

 

What goes on behind closed doors

Concerns about transparency were raised in many House Floor speeches during the final days of session, while leaders worked on deals behind closed doors.

“Legislators are reading about what’s happening in bills on Twitter,” House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Mpls) said Sunday during discussion of the tax bill. “The public has no idea what’s going on.”

In an end-of-session press release, Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud) noted that the supplemental budget includes a provision that may help the process in future years – calling for a study of how other states set budget targets.

“Hopefully we can learn from other states in how to prevent the sort of problems we had at the end of this session,” he wrote.

Despite the chaos and confusion of the session’s final days, the Legislature did manage to reach agreement on several key pieces of legislation – and came close on a few others. Here’s a look at the highlights of what did – and didn’t – happen this session.  

 

Taxes

“Don’t stop believing” was the refrain from House Taxes Committee Chair Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston), and the refrain seemed to pay off when a bill providing $257 million in tax relief over the biennium passed the House Sunday morning and the Senate later in the day.

“I’m glad that we may be able to stop believing after the governor signs it,” Davids said.

Provisions in the bill include a first-in-the-nation student loan tax credit and expansion child care and working family tax credits, among other thigs.

 

Supplemental Budget

From broadband to prekindergarten, the 599-page supplemental budget seemed to include something for everyone to love and to hate, and members of the conference committee on the bill praised it as a true compromise.

The bill, which passed off the House floor with just over an hour left in the legislative session, includes a budget increase of $182 million over the biennium for a wide range of programs, as well as numerous policy and technical provisions.

Dayton applauded the inclusion of $25 million for voluntary prekindergarten, one of his priorities for the supplemental budget, saying Monday that “there’s just every reason to be expanding this opportunity” for the youngest Minnesotans.

 

Transportation

How to pay for a long-term boost in dedicated transportation funding — and whether metro area transit should be funded alongside Minnesota’s roads and bridges — again vexed lawmakers.

Gov. Mark Dayton expressed disappointment May 23 that a bonding bill failed to be passed by the Legislature on the final day of session. The governor said he is undecided about calling a special session to get one passed. Photo by Paul Battaglia

For the second session in a row, legislative leaders placed a comprehensive, long-term transportation funding package atop their legislative to-do list. And, for the second session in a row, they failed, done in by impasses over the gas tax and rail transit projects.

A conference committee co-chaired by Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Red Wing) and Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls) made progress in recent days, with both sides ceding ground in an effort to strike a deal. Kelly had expressed support for allowing metro counties to levy an additional local option transit-dedicated sales tax to fund transit projects and Dibble had backed the Senate off its insistence a gas tax hike be included in any bill, a measure House Republicans staunchly opposed.

Support for the proposed transit tax — as well as increased license tab fees — appeared tepid within the House Republican caucus, though, and Daudt said he deemed a comprehensive transportation bill to be dead in the final weekend of the session.

Opposition to funding the proposed Southwest LRT route from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie was another major sticking point, with Republican lawmakers saying the state’s efforts should be focused tightly on roads and bridges.

Dayton expressed frustration Monday at Republicans’ resistance to metro area rail transit initiatives.

“A good metropolitan transit system is good for the metropolitan economy, and thus good for the economy of Minnesota,” he said.

 

Bonding

The dramatic failure of a proposed $1 billion bonding bill in the session’s final moments Sunday night dealt a blow to public works projects across the state that had sought funding.

Daudt and Dayton both lamented Monday that without the borrowing measure things like deferred maintenance on college campuses, rail crossing safety upgrades, and critical highway and bridge improvements can’t move forward.

House Republican Media Availability 5/23/16

Even-year legislative sessions have historically been considered “bonding years,” when lawmakers pass a bill authorizing a sizable amount of borrowing to support public works projects in all corners of the state.

WATCH Speaker Daudt's Monday media availability on YouTube

Saying he was “incredibly disappointed” at the failure to get a bonding bill to the governor’s desk, Daudt placed the blame for scuttling the bill on the Senate’s late amendment to add funding for the controversial Southwest rail line.

“What held up the bill is something that wasn’t in the bill,” he said.

House Republicans, however, didn’t release their original $800 million capital investment plan until last week, leaving legislators on the bonding conference committee little time to bridge the huge gap between the House’s more modest proposal and the Senate’s $1.5 billion bill.

Dayton said Monday that no large scale bonding bill in 2016 would hurt cities large and small around the state.

“It would be in Minnesota’s best interest to have a bonding bill in the next year,” he said.

 

Real ID

Legislators were also unable to reach final agreement on how to make Minnesota IDs compliant with tougher federal security standards laid out in the Real ID Act.

Governor Dayton Media Availability 5/23/16

Both the House and Senate passed legislation that would lay out new requirements for state IDs, including new security features on the cards, added proof of residency requirements and extended data retention timelines.

Conferees on HF3959/ SF3589* had agreed to the Senate’s preferred implementation timeline of January 2018, but got stuck Saturday night on House language that would specifically prohibit undocumented immigrants from obtaining a Minnesota driver’s license.

WATCH Gov. Mark Dayton's Monday news conference on YouTube

Dibble refused to accept a House offer including the measure; Senate language was silent on the issue.

The Department of Homeland Security last week declined to offer the state an additional extension to comply with the 2005 federal law, meaning Minnesotans cannot gain access to secure federal facilities and military bases using only the state’s non-compliant licenses.

If the problem is still unaddressed by January 2018, Minnesotans also would not be able to board domestic commercial flights without an enhanced ID. Dayton said that timeline means there’s still time for lawmakers to come to an agreement next year.

“No bill this year is better than a bad bill,” he said. 

 

Session Daily writer Jonathan Avise contributed to this story


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