St. Paul, Minn. – After wrapping up work on bills regarding the state budget and tax provisions – while leaving work on transportation, bonding, and some other important items undone – the Minnesota Legislature adjourned for the year Sunday night.
Rep. Jack Considine (DFL – Mankato) released the following statement:
“The result produced by this legislative session highlights what exactly happens when partisanship is held to a higher regard than helping ordinary Minnesotans improve the lives of themselves and their families. The letdowns from this session are almost too numerous to mention. This session saw failure to approve a raise for those who provide care in home and community based settings, failure to fund overdue renovations and increase staffing at the Minnesota Security Hospital, failure to fully fund broadband, and I could go on and on.
“Most remarkably: no bill solving our long term transportation infrastructure crisis was passed. This was supposed to be the top-ticket item this year, but those in the House Majority simply chose to not come to the table with any type of meaningful compromise. By not taking this action, roads will continue to fall apart and bridges will continue to deteriorate.
“When I entered office January of last year, I had high hopes we could work on a bipartisan basis to get important stuff done for our citizens, our communities, and our state, and not play politics with people’s lives. This session regrettably had far too much of the latter. Things have to be different next time around.”