Between late afternoon Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, the Minnesota Legislature passed budget bills that will fund more than $35 billion in state government and end the 19-day shutdown. Most lawmakers, however, didn’t have time to read the bills, which were only made available in the hours just before the votes.
House Minority Leader Paul Thissen Thursday afternoon lauded Gov. Mark Dayton’s offer to agree to Republican legislative leaders’ June 30 budget proposal. “Given that the Republicans have repeatedly and publicly said that policy issues are off the table, the Republicans have every reason to accept their own budget offer,” he wrote.
Business leaders, Democrats and LGBT groups are unified in one aspect of their opposition to a Republican Senate bill that would but a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage on the ballot in 2012: Gay marriage is a distraction from Minnesota’s economic needs.
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.
DFL Rep. Ryan Winkler of Golden Valley sent a letter to Majority Leader Matt Dean on Thursday pressing for a hearing on an amendment that would direct the Minnesota House to pass a budget bill before it can deal with constitutional amendments such as one banning marriage rights for same-sex couples. Republicans had promised to put the deficit ahead of divisive social issues but religious conservatives have already begun a campaign to get them on the ballot.
On the first day of the legislative session, the Republican majority in the Minnesota House voted down an amendment to the rules that would put fixing the state budget deficit before any constitutional amendments. The rule, offered by Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis), was referred to the Rules Committee for further consideration by a vote of 74 to 60. DFL Rep. Ryan Winkler of Golden Valley criticized the vote as an indication that the Republican majority may prioritize delving into divisive social issues over fixing the budget deficit.
Two fact-checks done by local news outlets find that the Alliance for a Better Minnesota’s newest ad, which claims “Tom Emmer missed one out of every five votes in the state legislature,” is accurate — with caveats.
Our favorite (or at least most prolific) politweep, Democratic Rep. John Lesch, texts on Capitol chatter about impeaching the governor over unallotment, an action by Tim Pawlenty dubbed “the politics of arrogance” by Rep. Paul Thissen. Plus:…
Three bills that would assist same-sex couples in the event of one partner’s death were passed by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Legislators recalled stories of couples who underwent hardships because of inequality in the law, while Tom Prichard of the Minnesota Family Council called the bills “discriminatory” and said they are “unfair to married couples.”
Minnesota’s best chance at a mention during the State of the Union — barring an unlikely shout-out to accused phone-repair impersonator Joe Basel — is Sen. Al Franken’s new jobs bill, inspired by a Minnesota program.…
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