Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) sent a scathing fundraising letter to supporters complaining about the 2011 legislative session and blaming Republican leadership for not pressuring Gov. Mark Dayton to sign anti-abortion legislation.

Politics in Minnesota’s Paul Demko notes that MCCL President Leo LaLonde went after House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, both of whom are Republicans. The letter notes that MCCL’s finances are at an all-time low.

“I am going to be brutally honest,” LaLonde wrote. “I am devastated by the fact that not only were we unsuccessful in enacting any new pro-life laws this session, but we lost an existing pro-life policy for the first time since Roe V. Wade legalized abortion on demand!”

LaLonde criticized Republicans for the group’s legislative failures.

“[We] felt confident that House and Senate leaders would insist that at least some of our protective measures would be included in the final budget,” he said. “Senate Majority Leader Koch and Speaker of the House Zellers quickly struck a deal with Gov. Dayton, and in the blink of an eye all five pro-life measures that has been passed by nearly two-thirds, veto-proof margin during the legislative session were negotiated away.”

He added, “The Republican leaders lost sight of what is truly at stake—the lives of innocent human beings.”

The letter asked supporters for donations because MCCL is struggling financially.

“The uncertainty of the economy has not been kind to MCCL. Donations are down,” the letter reads. MCCL also said that they spent a lot of money in the 2011 legislative session: ”Our coffers are at an all-time low-will you help us?”

The watchdog group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sent a letter to Minnesota Senate leadership Monday warning the chamber that Pastor Dennis Campbell‘s prayer last week was unconstitutional. Addressed to Senate President Michelle Fischbach, Majority Leader Amy Koch and Minority Leader Tom Bakk, the letter also urged the leaders to either refrain from allowing prayers in the Senate or to ensure that if it continues to do so it does in a way that respects other traditions.

The letter — which was signed by Ayesha N. Khan, Americans United’s legal director; Gregory M. Lipper, the group’s litigation counsel; and staff attorney Ian Smith — stated that numerous courts have ruled the type of prayer that Campbell gave, one that quotes Christian scripture and invokes Jesus Christ, unconstitutional.

“Pastor’s Campbell’s prayer was unconstitutional because it was sectarian and proselytizing,” the letter states. “The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution permits prayers at the beginning of legislative sessions if those prayers do not contain language or symbols specific to one religion.”

The letter, which cites reporting by the Minnesota Independent, goes on to state that several lower courts have allowed even broader leeway than the Supreme Court, and the type of prayer given by Campbell was of the sort that those lower courts have ruled against.

“Pastor Campbell’s prayer was unconstitutional even under the more permissive standard adopted by” other courts, wrote the attorneys.

The letter concluded, “Because the Senate is designed to represent all Minnesota citizens, regardless of faith, we urge you to refrain from opening future sessions with any type of prayer. If the Senate does continue open meetings with prayers, however, the Constitution requires you to ensure that they do not advance any particular religion.”

The prayer raised the ire of non-Christian senators and departed from longstanding tradition that allowed clergy from different faiths to offer prayer so long as the prayer is inclusive of all senators’ beliefs. Over the weekend, Campbell addressed those concerns, especially by Jewish lawmakers who commented, stating that he wasn’t “seeking to offend anybody but seeking to show respect for Jesus Christ, the creator, redeemer, savior and one day our judge, and we know the founders of the constitution were very supportive of Jesus Christ and the Bible.”

The letter, which appears below, echoes sentiments shared with the Minnesota Independent last week by Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United:

2011-03-21-minnesota-senate –

State economist Tom Stinson’s new budget forecast, released Monday, shows Minnesota’s budget deficit shrinking by $1.2 billion, leaving a $5 billion deficit. Citing the improved figures, Gov. Mark Dayton took off the table his proposals for a 3 percent tax on those making $500,000 and for cuts to long-term care for seniors. He says the removal of the tax increase will keep Minnesota’s tax rate below the nation’s highest.

According to a press release from the Governor’s Office, Dayton will eliminate the 3 percent surcharge on those making more than $500,000 but will maintain his tax increases on high earners: “Dayton’s revised budget will eliminate his proposed surcharge, thus fulfilling his promise to keep Minnesota’s top tax rate below the nation’s highest, while improving progressivity.”

His proposal also restores funding for senior care. “Dayton’s revised budget, to be presented formally in the coming weeks, will: significantly reduce approximately $200 million in proposed cuts to the Department of Human Services for seniors’ long –term care including nursing homes and home health care, Minnesota Care, and community action grants,” the statement read.

Dayton’s proposal also restores funding for transit to help stave off fare increases.

Stinson said the improved forecast is due in part to the tax cut compromise signed by President Obama earlier this year.

Stinson also said that a cuts-only approach would cause “slightly more problems” than tax hikes, but he added, “They’ll probably both have a deleterious impact on the state’s economy.”

Republicans responded by saying it won’t change their plans to oppose tax increases on the wealthy.

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch told reporters, “There’s some good news here. It seems the economy is going in the right direction. Our priorities remain the same: Private sector job growth and reining in government spending. That message is what we have to continue talking about going forward.”

DFLers criticized the GOP for planning an all-cuts budget.

“The clock is taking for the GOP to propose their all-cuts budget,” said House Minority Leader Paul Thissen. “We still face a $5 billion deficit and if we continue using Pawlenty’s economic plan, we will have a deficit for years to come.”

He added, “What we know for certain Gov. Pawlenty’s failed policy is only going to cause the economy to stall.”

Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday, includes a tax hike for the wealthy, cuts to health care for 7,200 low-income adults, an increase in spending for K-12 education, a 6 percent decrease in the state workforce,and steady funding for local governments. “I have always said that a budget is about values and priorities, as well as dollars and cents,” Dayton said. “My budget represents my values and priorities, one of which is to keep my promises that I made to the people of Minnesota last fall.”

Dayton’s budget would cap state subsidized health insurance at 200 percent of the poverty level, a 75 percent reduction, and would result in 7,200 adults losing state health care services. The Department of Human Services would see a 2.8 percent decrease. There would also be a reduction to nursing homes and home health care services.

“I respect those who would prefer that I make no cuts,” Dayton said at a press conference. “To the critics I say, ‘Where would they come up with a better alternative?’”

He said, “I’m not willing to make barbaric cuts in essential services.”

Local government aid will be held steady which Dayton said will hold the line on property taxes.

Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak praised the budget and the funding for local governments.

“In my nine years as mayor, this is the first time that a governor has delivered a budget that helps hold the line on property taxes,” he said in a statement. “Governor Dayton inherited a fiscal mess that was made far worse for the middle class by years of the State’s passing the buck onto local businesses and homeowners. In proposing no more crippling cuts to Local Government Aid, Governor Dayton has drawn the line.”

St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman said the funding for local governments would help the core cities continue to be the economic drivers for the state.

“Saint Paul and other core cities are the economic engines of Minnesota,” he said in a statement. “With Governor Dayton’s bold leadership, Saint Paul will continue to be a prime location for job creation and economic development.”

Dayton also proposed an increase funding for K-12 education, and much of that increase would go to statewide all-day early education. The shift in aid payments to schools that was implemented by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty would continue, but would be repaid at 10 percent per year starting in 2014.

Higher education funding, particularly for state college and universities, will see a 6 percent reduction. Public safety will be maintained at current levels.

The proposal will also contain a 6 percent reduction in the state workforce. “There are gong to be layoffs,” Dayton said, though he predicted many of the estimated 800 jobs lost would come through early retirements and not filling positions once vacated.

The proposal increases taxes for the “4th tier” of taxpayers, the most wealthy Minnesotans. That rate will increase to 10.95 percent for joint tax-filers who make over $150,000 and head of household filers making over $130,000. Dayton is also proposing a 3-year temporary 3 percent tax on people whose taxable income is $500,000.

And the proposal would close loopholes on “snowbirds” who file taxes in other states but live in Minnesota five months and 29 days a year.

“I believe this budget proves that I am a man of my word,” Dayton said of the tax increase pledge he made during his campaign in 2010.

Dayton said that the top tax rate has gone down in Minnesota over the last two decades from 12.5 percent to 9.8 percent.

He hopes that he and Republicans can come to an agreement on the budget in the next few months. “I expect to have to give up some of this proposal as a way of finding common ground with the legislature,” he said, adding, “We will both be unhappy with different aspects, and that’s the process.”

Republicans blasted the budget proposal. Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch said, “This is the highest income tax in the country.”

House Speaker Kurt Zellers said, “This is a feeble and pathetic attempt to go back in time. It will not work. It’s not what governors across the country are doing.”

He added, “Don’t worry, we are not going to let Mark Dayton tax our jobs out of our state.”

Koch said, “We will work to find common ground, but the tax increases are not going to be accepted by the House and Senate.”

Sen. Geoff Michel added, “What he chose was to put together his campaign platform and that’s fine; I’ll give the governor credit for being consistent, however, I don’t want to say it’s dead on arrival but I don’t think its got much of a heartbeat.”

Members of the Republican leadership in the Minnesota Senate have introduced legislation to ban state funding for abortions, just weeks after saying that creating jobs and fixing the budget deficit would be the party’s top priorities. The bill was offered on the eve of Minnesota Citizens Concerned For Life’s (MCCL) March for Life at the State Capitol grounds.

The bill, SF103, states, “Funding for state-sponsored health programs shall not be used for funding abortions, except to the extent necessary for continued participation in a federal program.”

The legislation is a reaction to a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court case, Doe v. Gomez, which said that if the state offers pregnancy services to low-income women it cannot discriminate between which procedures it offers, and the bill anticipates a constitutional challenge.

“If any one or more provision, section, subdivision, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this section or the application of it to any person or circumstance is found to be unconstitutional,” the bill reads, “it is declared to be severable and the balance of this section shall remain effective notwithstanding such unconstitutionality.”

MCCL, the state’s largest anti-abortion group has been sharply critical of the 1995 ruling. “The Doe v. Gomez ruling by a handful of extremist judges has been disastrous for Minnesota women and their babies,” Scott Fischbach, MCCL’s executive director, said in a statement.

Fischbach’s wife, Sen. Michele Fischbach of Paynesville, is President of the Senate and cosponsor of the bill. Another GOP leader, Majority Leader Amy Koch, has signed on to cosponsor the bill, a move that contrasts her previous statements about making jobs a priority.

“There’s a lot of important issues and we will get to them. But the priority now is the budget, jobs, and the economy,” Koch told MPR just before the legislative session started.

Sen. David Hann of Eden Prairie, who serves as Assistant Majority Leader and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, is also a cosponsor of the bill. It has been referred to his committee.

The other sponsors of the bill are freshman Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, and Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, who is also chair of the Finance Committee.

Reproductive rights groups assailed the introduction of the bill.

“Minnesotans know that we have different views on issues like abortion, and even though we may not agree on all points, our state Constitution has made sure all women have had the right to choose for more than 15 years,” said Linnea House, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota. “The anti-choice lawmakers want to focus on this issue at the expense of our state’s other priorities. They are overstepping in trying to force an anti-choice agenda that weakens our state’s Constitution. The budget crisis is critical, which makes it even more unbelievable that some lawmakers are attacking choice.”

She added, “Making the option of abortion accessible to all women did not create a budget crisis. In fact, this is a distraction from the state’s priorities.”

The bill’s Friday introduction was timed to precede Saturday’s March for Life, an MCCL event that brings about a 1,000 people to the Capitol to rally against abortion each year.

Saturday’s event drew the support of Minnesota’s Republican members of Congress as well as DFL Rep. Collin Peterson.

Rep. John Kline told the crowd that health reform legislation contained taxpayer funding for abortion. “You know that that awful legislation has language allowing taxpayer funding of abortion,” he said.

Despite Kline’s claim, independent fact-checkers, including FactCheck.org and Politifact, have frequently ruled “false” the that statement health care reform would pay for abortions.

Rep. Erik Paulsen said, “There is nothing more important than life,” while Rep. Michele Bachmann told the crowd, “We
can zero out that checking account with the stroke of a pen!” Rep. Chip Cravaack said, “This is just the start of a year dedicated to promoting and protecting a culture of life.”

Rep. Collin Peterson sent a written greeting to the rally. “I look forward to working with you over the next year as we continue to protect life for all human beings,” he said.

Republican leadership in the Minnesota Legislature unveiled its job creation proposals on Monday and filed the first bills intended to boost employment and reduce the deficit. The House bills would create “priority-based budgeting” and scale back the environmental permitting process, while the Senate introduced a bill to reduce income and property taxes for businesses. The latter policy drew strong criticism from DFLers, unions and nonprofit groups.

Freshman Rep. Dan Fabian (R-Roseau) said of the changes to the environmental permitting bill, “This a bill, as we said during the campaign, it’s about jobs. This is a bill that I think can be bipartisan.”

The bill would shorten the amount of time it takes for businesses to get a permit, would allow developers to write Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) “rather than a responsible government unit such as a state agency or local government,” and “repeal Minnesota Pollution Control Agency rules that “prohibiting construction before permit issuance for projects requiring National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System water permits.”

He said the changes would help Minnesota businesses because “the permitting process at this time takes too long.”

Another freshman, Rep. King Banaian (R-St. Cloud), has offered a bill that would change Minnesota’s budgeting system to a zero-based budget or as he called it “priority-based budgeting.”

“This bill is about some very basic economics,” he said. “Instead of looking at an agency or department, we are going to ask them to look at a service, ask them how do you provide a service to us, how much does is cost, who do you serve, compare us to other states so that we have some benchmarking.”

It would also establish a sunset commission that would evaluate state agencies and boards every 10 years and look at reorganization or elimination of those that are no longer needed.

On the Senate side, a bill has been introduced that would cut the corporate tax and business property tax rates.

“We want to make Minnesota the best place to start a business,” said Sen. Geoff Michel (R-Edina). “We will do anything to help a job creator.”

He said the GOP’s goal was to give job creators a reason to choose Minnesota and take a risk in Minnesota.

“Minnesota has the third highest business tax in the country. We are going to cut that in half over 6 years,” he said. “We are going to roll back the statewide business property tax to roughly 2009 levels and cut off the inflator.” That inflator means that the tax rises every year.

He added that there would be a cost to the deficit in cutting taxes.

“There would be a $200 million cost in tax relief, half in income tax, the other on property tax relief. We will make up for that with cuts in spending,” he said.

The DFL, unions and nonprofits suggested that cutting taxes for corporations might not be wise.

Rep. Paul Thissen of Minneapolis said that it “does nothing to solve the state’s budget deficit. In fact it sounds like it may be heading a little bit in the other direction.”

Rep. Tim Mahoney of St. Paul said that many of the proposals did nothing to create jobs now, especially the environmental permitting changes. “The problem with regulation reform, the way our system is set up, no changes can take effect until 2012. We need jobs in June 2011 not June 2012.”

He added, “The only real job creator is a stimulus creator. We need some kind of a bonding bill that puts people back to work. I’m still trying to figure out how those regulations will fill that particular hole.”

Sen. Tom Bakk of Cook said, “The facts are that the income tax cuts for the wealthiest Minnesotans did not result in any new jobs,” he said referring to past tax cuts from previous administrations.

The Minnesota Budget Project, a project of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, laid out several reasons why corporate tax cuts may not create jobs: they don’t guarantee growth, and state taxes are a minor expense for corporations.

“In the real world, tax cuts have not brought about stronger-than-average economic growth,” wrote the MBP’s Scott Russell. “Check out Ohio. It eliminated its corporate income tax yet its economic performance has been average at best.”

He added, “The proposed tax cuts would create a deeper budget hole now and add to the challenge policymakers already face to close a $6.2 billion budget deficit. In an age of accountability and transparency, it raises questions about whether these tax cuts are the most effective way to promote job growth and shared prosperity in Minnesota.”

Minnesota AFL-CIO president Shar Knutson has strong words for the GOP jobs plan.

“Republican legislators showed middle class Minnesotans exactly where they stand today,” she said in a statement. “Their proposals would give big corporations a free ride all while lowering pay and cutting benefits for hard-working middle class families.”

She praised Mark Dayton (whom her group supported during the gubernatorial campaign), “Governor Dayton is already working on a jobs and infrastructure bill to help put Minnesotans back to work and a plan to balance the budget fairly.Republican lawmakers should be following the Governor’s lead in helping build a better Minnesota.”

After years as a low-profile issue at the Minnesota Legislature, same-sex marriage is likely to become a source of controversy next session. New Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate bode well for efforts by the Minnesota Family Council and the Catholic Church, both of which hope to place a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot in 2012. Republican leadership has been mum on the prospect so far, and despite long odds, LGBT advocates hope to advance a few key provisions of their own in 2011.

The Minnesota Family Council, which holds incredible sway with the majority of Republicans in the Legislature, has made the amendment a clear priority.

“Obviously, we’re going to work hard to firm up our support and get it on the ballot, and you know the message is we believe the people should decide the definition of marriage — not the courts or backroom political deals,” the Family Council’s Tom Prichard told OneNewsNow, a Christian website.

In a fundraising pitch for Give to the Max Day on Tuesday, the group said the money would go right to the marriage push. “The recent turnover of both House and Senate has cleared the way to pass a marriage amendment and put it on the ballot in 2012. This is a huge opportunity to protect marriage. Help us seize this moment with the funds to finish the job.”

“God has been ever so faithful to meet MFC’s budget needs to get us this far. I’m most thankful for His provision through your continued support and partnership!”

The group racked up 83 donations on Give to the Max day, compared with OutFront Minnesota, which got 273 donors to give. OutFront is advocating against the amendment.

“You can count on OutFront Minnesota to lead the opposition to any anti-GLBT legislation or constitutional amendment,” executive director Monica Meyer said in an email. “And if a proposed amendment succeeds in getting onto the 2012 ballot, we will fight it.”

She added, “OutFront Minnesota has been taking the cause of marriage equality to the people for years and the results are clear: poll after poll shows more Minnesotans favor marriage equality every year. Presumably the next two years will show more movement toward equality.”

The Minnesota Family Council conducted its own poll before the 2010 election which showed 54 percent of voters supporting marriage as between “one man and one woman,” compared to 40 percent who said it could be “any two people.”

The poll focused on Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer and showed he would win the race handily if he focused on opposing gay marriage; “voters strongly support a gubernatorial candidate who supports defending marriage,” the group said. Emmer completely avoided the issue on the campaign trail and currently trails DFLer Mark Dayton by 8,700 votes. A recount is likely later this month.

The Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage spent big money for the survey, but neither Emmer nor Dayton would have a hand in “protecting marriage,” as the Council’s Chuck Darrell explained after the election.

“Our opponents were publicly boasting that they would legalize same-sex marriage in the nest session assuming that they could retain the legislature and elect a governor who supported homosexual marriage,” he said. “Well, it looks like the Lord had a different plan and turned control of both houses over to pro-life, pro-family majority.”

He continued, “What that means is that we can pass a marriage amendment and put it on the ballot in 2012. Why? Well, an amendment only needs to be passed by both houses before being placed on the ballot for the next election — it completely bypasses the governor.”

But will evangelical conservatives see resistance from Republicans who ran on a “jobs and economy” platform largely devoid of social issues? That seems to be the indication from GOP leadership.

Future House Speaker Kurt Zellers told MinnPost, “If it isn’t about jobs, improving the business climate, it’s not a priority.”

And to TheUptake he said, “If that’s something that you care about and something you want to work though in your church or your synagogue or your mosque, you can’t get there if you don’t have a job.”

Future Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch echoed those sentiments.

“I am a social conservative, but we’ve had a conversation with the caucus,” she said. “They ran on the budget, the economy and jobs. We talked about how this is not the time to be messing around [with social issues]. We’re going to be unified on that.”

But Sen. Warren Limmer of Maple Grove broke from the leadership.

“The statement I’ll make is that there’s a keen interest by a majority of the members of both chambers to define marriage, and to allow the public to do so,” he told the Associated Press just after the election.

Republicans won’t only have to contend with the Family Council on the issue of an anti-gay marriage amendment; the Catholic Church in Minnesota will be looking for payback for the DVD campaign that Archbishop John Neinstedt launched just before the election that cost more than $1 million. That campaign urged voters to vote for candidates who would work to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Following the election, the archbishop’s paper, the Catholic Spirit, defended the DVD campaign and spoke of the importance of an amendment.

“Whether the DVD can achieve its objective of getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot remains to be seen,” the paper wrote. The church is seeking a broad ban on rights for same-sex couples. “And because it seeks to morally guide the broader culture, the church does not support civil gay unions under any title.”

St. John Vianney Seminary rector Father Michael Becker said, “All of heaven is summed up in a consummation of a love affair, that Jesus Christ is marrying the church, that God is marrying his people.”

He said that’s why opposing gay marriage is the most important political issue. “The best way we can describe heaven is to speak about marriage. Is marriage just to be one other political issue, very low on the totem pole? Well, if all of heaven is summarized as a wedding, that’s pretty significant.”

Gay marriage isn’t the only issue of concern to the LGBT community or to evangelical conservatives.

Ann Kaner-Roth of Project 515, a group that is working to eliminate the 515 ways Minnesota statute discriminates against same-sex couples, said it’s too soon to know what issues they will tackle with a new Republican majority.

“Like everyone else, we are waiting to see how the new legislature will approach various issues, who the legislative leadership is, what committees are created… Not to mention the conclusion of the gubernatorial race as well as the handful of other races still in recounts,” she said. “So, it’s a bit too early yet to talk about our specific legislative approach for 2011, but we remain committed to full equality for same-sex couples and their families.

She added, “And we’ll continue to educate legislators and others around the 515 statutes that currently discriminate against these families in our community.”

Outfront’s Meyer said that anti-bullying measure will be a top priority as they have picked up Republican supporters in the past. The issue has become a critical policy for the LGBT community following four suicides in the past year that advocates say involved students who were harassed because they were LGBT or their peers thought they were LGBT.

“OutFront Minnesota will continue to lead efforts to pass safe schools legislation to protect students across Minnesota from aggressive bullying and harassment,” Meyer said in an email. “This legislation passed with bipartisan support in 2009, and can again in 2011, this time with a governor who will sign it into law.”

The Minnesota Family Council lobbied heavily in 2009 to defeat any changes to the state’s anti-bullying measures.

Republican  leaders announced Tuesday that they have greatly reduced the number of legislative committees in the Minnesota House and Senate and that they estimate cost savings at between $750,000 and $800,000. Future House Speaker Leader Kurt Zellers said the new structure will reduce the number of committees from 36 to 24, and future Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch said her caucus has reduced committee from 25 to 16. Zellers said the new structure will make it easier for businesses to navigate the process.

“We wanted to productively innovate to make government more user friendly,” Koch said at a press conference at the Capitol Tuesday afternoon. “It’s going to make the process much more transparent.”

She added, “We are estimating that in the Senate we will save $250,000 to $300,000.”

She said the new structure is a 36 percent reduction in committees.

On the House side, Zellers said that the new structure will help business owners and concerned citizens navigate the process.

“We’ve streamlined government,” said Zellers. “We set our structure up so that it’s to the advantage of the voters. It’s what the voter expected and demanded.”

He said saving will be “close to if not a half a million in savings.”

“There’s going to be one stop shopping in most cases, if you are a business owner,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how efficiently we run this place.” He said that his caucus had spoken to a lot of business owners who had trouble getting through to complicated committee structure when an issue came up.

“It’ll be a lot easier and more transparent,” he said.

The major changes include doing away with subcommittees and combining policy and budget committees as well as staff reductions.

“We’ve done some combining of policy and finance committees,” said Koch. “If you looked at a lot of the bills, policy and finance are so intertwined anyway, it just made a lot of sense.”

In terms of staff reductions in the Senate, Koch said it’s likely to be four to five people.

Zellers said in the House, “it is going to be a significant reduction.”

“I think it will be double digit,” he said, but noted that a lot of those cuts will come from positions left unfilled.

Senate Minority Leader Paul Thissen was not convinced that the new structure is a good idea. “My fear is that Republicans will use their new structure to reward the anonymous corporations who helped pay for many of the seats in this election,” he said.

Zellers dismissed his statement, “We’ll leave political pot-shots back on the campaign trail.”

Here’s the old committee structure for the House and Senate:

Old committee structure

Here’s the new structure that GOP leadership unveiled on Tuesday:

New committee structure

But the proposed stamp reduction quickly sparked opposition from Democrats. “This is the way many members stay in touch with their constituents,” said Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. “You don’t have to use up this total allotment if you don’t want.”

Sen. Steve Murphy echoed those comments. “Many of us that have larger districts … we depend upon that postage to stay in contact with our constituents,” noted Murphy, a DFLer from Red Wing. “Today, more than ever, we need the input from our constituents.”

Ultimately the proposal was voted down by a 38-27 margin, largely along party lines.