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State Representative Michael Beard
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-8872
For more information contact: Jodi Boyne 651-296-0640
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News and Notes: Budget negotiations continue
News and notes from State Representative Mike Beard, District 35B – Shakopee & Prior Lake
May 15, 2009
In this week’s edition: Session update; Budget negotiations continue; What we’ve done – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Session update
With less than four days of the 2009 legislative session remaining, the pace of work has quickened and the days are getting longer. Twice this week I’ve been at the Capitol past 1 a.m. and – based on many Mays spent in St Paul – I expect it to happen a couple of more times before the 18th finally rolls around. With this update I hope to give you a good handle on what we’ve done, what is left to do and what my role has been in getting there. And, if you see me wandering the streets of Shakopee with a vacant, hazy look on my face, I have an excuse this time.
Budget negotiations continue
Though it is a mystery to most of us here, budget negotiations between legislative leaders and Governor Pawlenty finally began in earnest this week. Amid the flurry of legislation being sent to the Governor (and his vetoes sending it back), Republican and Democrat leaders are making almost daily visits to the Governor’s office. One bill that has gotten the attention of everyone at the Capitol but I think has escaped the attention of most everyone else, is the passage of a “lights on” continuing appropriations measure. Democrats, I think, quickly realized that Governor Pawlenty meant what he said when he promised not to sign a tax increase. As such, House and Senate Democrat leaders have introduced and sent to the Governor a bill that will continue funding state government at least year’s funding levels if a budget agreement can’t be reached in time. While some form of a “lights on” bill is probably necessary, the bill that was sent to the Governor this week is not the solution we want. The bill passed this week continues funding government at last year’s spending levels. That’s important to note. With state tax revenue continuing to fall below last year, passage of this kind of “lights on” bill will overdraw the state’s checkbook by August or September. Why punt the difficult legislative decisions down the road when we’re here and ready to deal with them? Right now the bill is sitting on the Governor’s desk awaiting action.
What we’ve done – The Good
Earlier this week the House repassed conference committee reports for the Omnibus Transportation Policy and Omnibus Agriculture and Veterans Finance bills. The Ag and Vets bill passed off the floor 130-0 and represents tremendous work done by Republican conferees over the past ten days. Going into the conference committee, the Ag and Vets bill was full of unfunded commitments and misplaced priorities. When it came back to the House floor it contained increased funding for military affairs and veterans’ homes.
Another conference committee report that came back this week – and one I had a role in shaping – was the one for the Transportation Finance bill. Our conference committee met three times and the compromise that came out of that work turned an initially poor piece of legislation that reached into areas that had little to do with state transportation policy into a slimmed-down bill with policy provisions that shouldn’t give too much heartburn to already over-regulated Minnesota drivers. Earlier this week Governor Pawlenty signed the bill.
The Bad
Though some kind of agreement has been reached on a few of the budget appropriation bills, the two bills that have been surrounded by the most controversy and are the most likely to be vetoed by the Governor are the K-12 Education and the Health and Human Services (HHS) Omnibus Finance bills. The K-12 bill is real disappointment and can be summed up in six words: no funding, no reform, no leadership. House Republicans proposed to increase K-12 spending and introduce much needed reforms. Of course, those good ideas went nowhere in a Democrats controlled legislature. The HHS bill is much more problematic. Powerful state senators are looking to control the legislative process and want to increase welfare spending by $2 billion above last year’s (extremely generous and unsustainable) appropriations. The conference report knocked down the increase to $1.5 billion, and even talking about getting that number down to $1 billion has brought threats from Senate Democrats to slash nursing home and state hospital funding. Together, these two finance bills represent 75% of the state’s biennial budget. Without agreement in these two areas, the legislative session may grind to a halt.
The Ugly
Last year, Minnesota voters approved a sales tax increase to fund cultural and outdoors projects. Since the start of the 2009 session there have been few issues that have created as much discussion (civil and otherwise) and hand-wringing than the work of the committee that is deciding how the money should be spent. The legislative conference committee that is to decide the final project list has finally been convened. And I am hopeful that when their work is finally completed the list of outdoor and cultural projects will reflect the intent of the regular folks that voted for the amendment and not the political wishes and dictates of inner city Metro legislators.
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