Legislature

3Q: New Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller

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City Pages: You now officially have a state budget surplus, and although not counting inflation makes it seem much larger than the actual "real" money increase, there does seem to be some extra resources available as legislators put together the 2008-09 biennial budget during the next session. What do you see as the priority areas for spending?

Larry Pogemiller: Let me talk personally because I think it is premature to know where our committees and members of my caucus will go. I think there is general agreement on three areas and they are the bread and butter stuff. One is property tax relief, rebuilding the fiscal relationship between state and local governments, sort of a reconstruction of the Minnesota Miracle. Second, we badly need health care reform, for both businesses and individuals, but in a way that produces cost savings. That is doable. All the gubernatorial candidates were talking about cost savings even with universal coverage. Thirdly, we need strategic investments in education. I think people generally agree on a trade-off of increased accountability for [increased] investment. The governor has done that in a punitive way, but I think we can restructure it in a productive way because educators certainly want to be productive. And I think that kind of leads you to an investment in early childhood. Again that is a personal assessment but I think there is a growing recognition that that is the most strategic investment you can make, provide you with the biggest bang for the buck. Because if children aren't ready to learn, you can have a massive amount of inefficient spending.

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Posted by Britt Robson at December 1, 2006 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

 

Senate Democrats choose Pogemiller

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Flush from an election triumph that leaves them a single vote away from veto-proof authority in the Minnesota Senate, DFL legislators chose eight-term Sen. Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Mpls) as their Majority Leader late Thursday afternoon. Pogemiller, who replaces defeated Sen. Dean Johnson in the leadership post, is the longtime chair of the Senate Tax Committee and widely regarded as the DFL Senate's foremost expert on budgetary matters. He has also been in the forefront in opposing Governor Tim Pawlenty's shifting of the tax burden from income to property taxes over the past four years. A Pogemiller-led bill to boost income taxes for the state's wealthiest residents passed the Senate in 2005 but was not passed in the House and would have faced an almost certain veto from Pawlenty.

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Posted by Britt Robson at November 9, 2006 5:31 PM | Comments (1)

 

Welcome to the Nanny State

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This week the Minnesota House voted 114-to-17 to prohibit minors from purchasing or renting mature- or adult-rated video games. In nearly every state where a similar law has been passed, a federal judge ruled such government restrictions as unconstitutional.

But Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul) doesn't believe kids have First Amendment rights. In an article last year in CP, Pappas said the First Amendment was irrelevant to the issue, and that the law wasn't intended to criminalize kids buying video games, but simply to educate parents: "This is to let them know that the state says it's inappropriate for children to play these video games." And it's the state's job to inform parents of what's appropriate for their children, right?

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Posted by at May 19, 2006 1:33 PM | Comments (5)

 

Twins stadium passes conference committee

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Proponents of a new Minnesota Twins stadium received another significant boost this morning when the House-Senate conference committee agreed on a voice vote to legislation that overwhelmingly favors the version passed by the House earlier this month.

The stadium bill that will appear for a final floor vote before the House and the Senate before the Legislature adjourns on Monday does not contain a roof, nor a referendum, nor, most significantly, a statewide sales tax to fund transportation and new ballparks for both the Twins and the Vikings. Senate conference committee chair Steve Kelley (DFL-Hopkins) essentially threw in the towel this morning by agreeing merely to have the committee recommend to the House-Senate transportation conference committee that the sales tax for transportation be considered as part of their bill. Without any quid pro quo, there is very little likelihood that the conference committee on transportation will heed that recommendation.

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Posted by Britt Robson at May 19, 2006 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

 

Twins Stadium: Verbatim testimony from the House

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After all the amendments to the Twins stadium bill had been considered, members of the Minnesota House engaged in about an hour of debate, culminating a marathon, seven-hour session on the issue. What follows is the majority of that final testimony, with just a few gaps due to a tape running out and requiring replacement.

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Posted by Britt Robson at April 28, 2006 12:46 PM | Comments (6)

 

Twins Stadium, Chapter 83462398

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The endless push for a new Twins stadium finally wore out Strib columnist Doug Grow, who waved a sheepish white flag in favor of the Hennepin County sales tax deal in this morning's paper. The Hennepin County commissioners are in the midst of another marathon song-and-dance this afternoon that will almost certainly culminate in the county adding another $20 million in inflation-adjusted cost to the public investment in the proposed ballpark, bringing the tab for taxpayers up to $349 million.

But the watershed (Waterloo?) moment for the latest stadium money-grab will happen later this week, as the House Tax Committee takes up the bill that, as currently written, would authorize Hennepin County to levy bonds and implement the sales tax without seeking public approval through a referendum, as is currently required by state law. Chaired by Rep. Phil Krinkie (R-Shoreview), one of the staunchest fiscal conservatives at the Capitol, with Hennepin County legislator and stadium opponent Rep. Ann Lenczewski (DFL-Bloomington) also a prominent force, the committee probably represents the most formidable obstacle in the path of Twins stadium proponents.

Krinkie has shrewdly scheduled his committee's hearings on the bill as a two-part process. Those in favor of a stadium will be testifying beginning tomorrow at 3 p.m. in Room 5 of the State Office Building. Opponents of the ballpark will get their say beginning at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Oak Grove Middle School, 1300 W. 106th St. in Bloomington. Thus, the opponents get the final testimony, at a time more accessible in the schedules of most taxpayers, and in a Hennepin County location that also happens to be in Lenczewski's district. And if you think the Hennepin County hearings have been lengthy, just wait until Krinkie and Lenczewski start loading up proposed amendments to the bill around 9 or 10 on Thursday night.

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Posted by Britt Robson at April 18, 2006 3:22 PM | Comments (5)

 

Fear of a Gay Planet

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There wasn't much that was surprising surrounding yesterday's Senate hearing on the anti-gay marriage amendment bill at the Capitol. Both sides were out in force, filling Room 15 and two rooms upstairs (segregated by beliefs) where the hearings were televised. Anyone paying attention knows the arguments, pro and con, by heart by now. And, least surprising of all, the Judiciary Committee defeated the amendment on a 5-4 vote along party lines, with proponents vowing to exact their retribution at the polls.

If there was one thing I hadn't anticipated, however, it was the enormous and visceral fear of gays and their influence over society demonstrated by supporters of the amendment.

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Posted by Britt Robson at April 5, 2006 4:09 PM | Comments (3)

 

Stadium blues: split decision in K.C.

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Yesterday, residents of Jackson County, Missouri engaged in an exercise intensely feared by Minnesota sports moguls: they voted on whether to publicly subsidize professional sports stadiums.

Residents were asked whether they wanted to spend roughly $600 million in public dollars to renovate and roof Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums, home to the Chiefs and the Royals respectively. The result? Voters approved an increase in the sales tax that will generate $425 million in renovations, but rejected raising $170 million for a rolling roof from a tax that would've primarily impacted businesses.

Perhaps this partial victory for the sports franchises will spur our legislators to allow Minnesota residents the same courtesy before spending public dollars on stadiums. But somehow we doubt it.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 5, 2006 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

 

Religious right pressure cooker gets to Koering

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It was almost a year ago that Sen. Paul Koering (R-Fort Ripley) essentially outed himself as a gay person when he voted against moving the anti-gay marriage amendment proposed by Sen. Michelle Bachmann (R-Stillwater) out of committee and directly to the floor of the Senate for a vote. The very next morning, groups supporting the gay marriage ban starting running radio ads in Koering's district, and gave out his home phone number in the process. Within the week, caught up in a political firestorm, Koering decided to announce to the media that he was gay.

In an interview with City Pages last June, Koering claimed that he was against gay marriage, and that his vote was one disagreeing with procedure, "departing from the way we normally do business in the Senate...To make a motion to pull this out of committee and drag it right to the Senate floor, I just thought it was the wrong thing to do."

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Posted by Britt Robson at March 24, 2006 9:30 AM | Comments (2)

 

The Last Honest Constitutionalist?

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Becky Lourey's spine prevents her from politicking

State Sen. Becky Lourey today cast the lone dissenting vote on a bill to prohibit the intentional disruption of funerals by protesters. The proposal was sparked by last month's protest of a the Anoka funeral of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq by a Kansas-based religious sect intent on showing that God is killing American troops to punish tolerance for gays and lesbians. Reprehensible though the protect was, Lourey said in explaining her vote, it's a form of speech protected by the U.S. Constitution--something her own son died protecting in Iraq.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at March 16, 2006 2:23 PM | Comments (9)

 

Drug wars

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State senator Betsy Wergin (R-Princeton) and state representative Tom Emmer (R-Delano) have introduced legislation that would make it legal for Minnesota pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions on moral grounds. While the proposed law does not specify any particular drug, it's obviously aimed at emergency contraception, the so-called morning after pill.

The issue has become increasingly contentious in recent years. In Illinois, according to an article in the Chicago Tribune last month, five Walgreen's pharmacists have been suspended for refusing to fill such prescriptions. Wal-Mart is being sued in Massachusetts for failing to stock the pills.

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Posted by Paul Demko at February 15, 2006 1:55 PM | Comments (10)

 

Ballpark pitch: Kaufman calls for Twins stadium

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Since the fearless leaders at the Capitol have adjourned for the summer, there hasn't been much to report on the stadium front. That could all change, of course, if the governor and legislative honchos decide to haul everyone back to St. Paul in the fall for a special legislative session just to address the stadium issue.

The silence has been golden, but a plea for a new Twins ballpark came from an unexpected place recently: In the virtual pages of Salon.com, the internet daily magazine that's based in San Francisco.

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Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at August 11, 2005 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

 

The trouble with the new buffalo

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Earlier this week, the Strib published a list of the ten organizations that spent the most money lobbying the legislature between June 2004 and May 2005. Given Governor Pawlenty's hard push for casino expansion, it was no shock to learn that four of those ten organizations represented gaming interests, which were either seeking to protect their monopoly or get a cut of the action. Collectively, the gang of four shelled out $1.3 million "educating" lawmakers on the subject. That constitutes roughly 10 percent of all lobbying monies spent on the session.

This exertion of time, cash and energy is galling when you consider that the "debate" over the benefits and costs of casinos remains a debate only in the sense that global warming remains a debate. In other words, there is no real debate. Plainly put, gambling extracts social costs that outweigh its benefits; the more prevelant the gambling, the more prevelant the associated problems.

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Posted by Mike Mosedale at August 4, 2005 11:26 AM | Comments (0)