Leaders want Pawlenty in talks
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said she has not met with Pawlenty since before the session, more than a month ago.
“At some point, to really get a budget solved, to get a bonding bill done, the chief executive of the state has to be involved and engaged,” Kelliher said.
Pawlenty has met privately with lawmakers of both parties to discuss legislative issues, such as a minimum wage increase, but has not met with the DFL leadership to discuss overarching budget issues. Those talks, however, typically don’t occur until near the end of a legislative session.
Kelliher said this Legislature is working at a faster pace. Legislative panels have taken testimony on the impact of Pawlenty’s plan to fix the deficit, and now the House in coming days will begin unveiling its plan to solve the deficit predicted for the current two-year budget.
A Minnesota Public Radio report Friday indicated Pawlenty has been out of the state at least one out of every three days this year, which drew DFL criticism.
Health care moving
The first big vote this year on health care reform could occur in the coming days.
Senators are finalizing their health care reform bill. Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, said it could reach a Senate floor vote before the Legislature leaves Wednesday for an Easter recess.
Democratic lawmakers say they have worked with Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office on a series of “building block” proposals to start improving the health care system without worsening the state’s budget deficit.
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said the House probably would not act on its health care reforms until after the Senate approves its package. The two versions will need to be reconciled, she predicted.
Pawlenty: Rural Minnesota suffers
The DFL Legislature overrode Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s transportation funding veto more than two weeks ago, but debate over the bill’s impact continues.
Pawlenty, a Republican who has criticized the package for its tax increases, offered new critiques on his weekly radio Friday.
Rural Minnesota counties “definitely came out on the short end of the stick,” Pawlenty said, because of how road funds are distributed in the spending package. But at least one Republican lawmaker who helped override the veto, Rep. Bud Heidgerken of Freeport, has said the bill was good for rural areas.
The governor also said the bill forces taxpayers statewide to pay the subsidized operating costs for major light-rail transit lines in the Twin Cities, instead of having those costs covered by the local communities.
“I don’t know how that’s going to sit with people who don’t use it” or who live outside the Twin Cities, Pawlenty said.
Fishing opener change stalls
A proposal to set the walleye fishing opener earlier in May stalled Friday after members of a Senate committee expressed reservations.
Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, agreed to table his bill with the understanding that he may bring it back up as an amendment to another bill later in the legislative session.
Chaudhary wanted to set the fishing opener to the Saturday nearest May 8, a week earlier than now. One reason was to avoid Mother’s Day, but a study of the next 15 years showed the opener would fall on the holiday more often under his bill than under current law. The senator said he might suggest an even earlier opener to avoid Mother’s Day.
Joel Carlson, who represents small family-owned resorts, said an earlier opener would be a hardship on resorts.
“We are barely able to get our facilities open by May 10, which is the date this year,” he said about weather conditions.
Tax measures proposed
A Senate tax bill to be considered in coming weeks will reform a property tax relief program for farmers and temporarily boost state aid to cities, Sen. Rod Skoe said.
Skoe, a Clearbrook DFLer and Senate property tax chairman, said an omnibus tax bill will change the Local Government Aid formula to better compensate small cities until the formula used to determine LGA payments is overhauled.
“Addressing the LGA issue will mean property tax relief for Minnesotans in the long run,” Skoe said.
The bill also updates requirements for farmers benefiting from the Green Acres program, after an independent audit recommended changes.
Senate Tax Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, has said that tax bill probably will be controversial and that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty may object to it.
‘Emily’s Law’ advances
A legislative proposal stemming from the death of a Fergus Falls toddler passed a House committee, but its future is uncertain.
The Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee on Thursday approved the measure lowering the minimum age for adult criminal prosecution in certain felony cases from 14 to 13. The measure is led by Republican Reps. Bud Nornes of Fergus Falls and Torrey Westrom of Elbow Lake.
The so-called Emily’s Law is named after Emily Lynn Johnson, a 2-year-old who died in 2006 after being assaulted by a 13-year-old boy. The Senate has not acted on a companion bill.
Vietnam Veterans Day bill awaits vote
A plan designating March 29 as Vietnam Veterans Day in Minnesota awaits final legislative action.
Bill author Sen. Dan Skogen, DFL-Hewitt, recently won approval from the Senate Agriculture and Veterans Committee, which sent it to the floor for a final vote.
A companion bill awaits final passage in the House, where Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker, authored the measure. Howes said Vietnam War veterans never received a proper welcome home.
Self-defense gun bill fails
A plan to expand Minnesotans’ right to protect themselves by using deadly force suffered a near-fatal blow when it failed to pass a House committee.
The so-called Castle Doctrine gives citizens the right to use deadly force in their home if they feel their life is threatened. A bill by Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, expands that to a person’s property and vehicle.
It fell on a tie vote in the House Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee.
State law already allows people to kill an intruder in their home, but the “castle doctrine” bill by Cornish would have authorized deadly force against intruders who enter a porch, garage or occupied car.
Cornish said it would help people know when they can and can’t shoot in self defense, and that someone who takes a life without justification or reasonableness could still be prosecuted.
Under his proposal, a person on a street or in a bar would have no duty to retreat before using deadly force against someone they believed threatened them with “substantial” harm, compared with the standard of “great” bodily harm written into current law.
The hearing room was packed with supporters of the bill, many wearing buttons saying “Self Defense is a Human Right.”
“When your home is invaded, you are under attack,” testified David Gross, a Faribault attorney and longtime gun-rights advocate. “In a moment of peril, shouldn’t the law favor the defense?”
But the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota County Attorneys Association opposed the bill.
“We don’t want you to go eyeball to eyeball,” said Doug Johnson, Washington County attorney and past president of the prosecutors’ group. “This is not the old West.”
Despite the tie vote, which counts as a defeat, Cornish said he was optimistic his proposal could be amended to another bill this year or be resurrected in coming years.
On his weekly radio show, Gov. Tim Pawlenty urged lawmakers to reconsider the bill before the session closes.
“I hope they bring it back in the form of an amendment,” Pawlenty said. “It seems to me if you’re in your own home and someone intrudes and invades and they are presenting a threat to you or your family, you should not have to flee from your own home.”
Bridge victims fund
A House-Senate conference committee could meet soon to negotiate a compromise plan to compensate victims of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.
The Senate on Thursday approved its version of a compensation fund, setting aside $25 million for bridge collapse victims, but limiting an individual’s payment to $400,000. A House bill spends $40 million and does not cap what a bridge collapse victim can be paid from the state. In exchange for accepting the state payment, a victim would waive the right to sue the state.
Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said the House is firm in its opposition to a cap. Some bridge collapse victims say the Senate’s $400,000 limit will not cover medical expenses
Bridge probe
Within hours of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the rush to investigate was on. The federal government and Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration started their own probes. State legislators soon followed.
Now the Legislature is waiting for its first report on the bridge’s failure, the product of a law firm it hired to delve into the bridge’s 40-year history. Members of the Joint Committee to Investigate the Bridge Collapse haven’t gotten the report yet, but some say it might not reveal anything worrying.
When lawmakers first publicly proposed hiring their investigator, they set out a schedule with initial findings due Monday. But somewhere along the way — in private — the timetable was changed. The first report is now due May 1, said Sen. Steve Murphy, one of the panel’s two chairmen.
Interviewed Wednesday about the upcoming report, Murphy didn’t mention the changed timeline. He did so only after The Associated Press reported that the first deadline was nearing.
Murphy said he hopes the report will exonerate the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The panel — not the investigator — is controlling its release so lawmakers will be the first to see the findings.
“They may find nothing — nothing that needs further investigation,” said Murphy, DFL-Red Wing.
Top Democrats in the House and Senate committed as muchc as $500,000 out of their own budgets for the report, and the contract went to the Minneapolis law firm of Gray Plant Mooty. The investigation is focusing on decisions about the Interstate 35W bridge going back to its construction in the 1960s.
The Aug. 1 bridge collapse killed 13 people and injured 145.
The National Transportation Safety Board is trying to pinpoint the collapse’s cause, with help from a Chicago consulting company hired by the state Transportation Department for $2 million. A separate analysis of transportation spending patterns from the Legislative Auditor concluded last month that Minnesota roads suffered from a focus on new lanes and more should be spent on bridge inspections and maintenance.
Rep. Frank Hornstein, a member of the bridge panel, said the Legislature’s probe will not duplicate the federal search for a cause or the auditor’s broader look at spending decisions. One question he hopes it will answer is whether financial pressures discouraged action within the Transportation Department.
Contractor to sue
Progressive Contractors Inc., the construction company whose crews were resurfacing the Interstate 35W bridge when it fell, is preparing a possible lawsuit against the state for failing to keep its workers safe.
The basis of such a lawsuit would be that the state breached its contract with the St. Michael-based company, attorney Kyle Hart told The Associated Press on Friday.
“They’re required to provide you with a safe place to work, and if the bridge was defectively designed and defectively maintained, we could have a breach of contract against the state,” Hart said.
The AP obtained a legal notice that Progressive filed with Attorney General Lori Swanson. The notice briefly outlines potential claims against the state.
Minnesota Department of Transportation spokeswoman Lucy Kender declined to comment or make someone else available, saying it would be inappropriate to speak about potential litigation.
Progressive had a $2.4 million contract with the department for work on the bridge that included breaking up pavement with jackhammers and mixing and pouring concrete.
Progressive has been mentioned frequently as a target of potential lawsuits from collapse victims.
The company had an 18-member crew working on the bridge when it fell Aug. 1, and employee Greg Jolstad died along with a dozen motorists. Among the 145 people injured were at least two other construction workers whose attorneys have filed notices of potential lawsuits against the state.
Grades for schools
A year after lawmakers threw out a star-rating system for public schools, they’re trying to decide how to grade them.
Democratic legislators want new report cards to go beyond test scores to factor in progress toward goals, student opinion on teachers and participation in advanced courses. They say the broader measures will more accurately reflect the performance of poverty-stricken schools dealing with more difficult social issues.
“Kids aren’t widgets,” said Sen. Sandy Rummel, DFL-White Bear Lake. “People make this assumption that all students are equally equipped when they come to the classroom and that what happens in the classroom is the only factor that affects achievement. And that’s not true.”
The old system was based on state test results and performance standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Rummel’s bill would keep some traditional measures of evaluation, including whether the school met state standards, how well students did on reading and math tests and information on finances and demographics.
Not everyone is on board.
Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said the proposal could weaken the accountability system for schools and make some schools’ performance appear better than it is. She said the broader measures would also take staff time and resources to implement.
“We need to view this as a first step and vet this to a larger audience to make sure we have high expectations,” Seagren said.
But the head of Parents United for Public Schools expressed interest.
“Is this report card complex?” said Mary Cecconi. “Yes, but this is complex stuff. Dumbing something down isn’t the right way to do it.”
Biodiesel boost
The state Senate is considering a bill that would mandate the use of 20-percent biodiesel blends by 2015, which worries some environmentalists.
The fear is that such a big commitment to biodiesel would come at the expense of developing the next generation of the fuels that would be even cleaner.
Representative Al Juhnke of Willmar says the biodiesel mandate would give a boost to the state’s soybean farmers, as did a similar rule for the use of corn-based ethanol.
Heavy trucks in Minnesota now burn a blend that contains 2 percent biodiesel. His bill would raise that to 20 percent by 2015, with some seasonal exceptions.
Alternative fuels experts point to research indicating that algae growing in waste water plants could be one of those cleaner, next-generation fuels.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the biodiesel bill on Thursday. The bill includes $500,000 for the research into algae as fuel.
Childhood obesity
A plan to monitor childhood obesity by collecting the body-mass index measurements of Minnesota children went over like diet ice cream in a House panel on Tuesday.
Objections came from both sides of the aisle and several experts. After some debate, the Public Health Finance Division voted 9-5 to strip the provision from a larger public health bill. But the child body-mass measurements are still alive in a Senate bill.
Body mass index is a formula that measures body fat.
The biggest worry from those who objected: The numbers could shame overweight children and teenagers.
“They know in the third grade that they’re fat. They know that,” said Rep. Neil Peterson, R-Bloomington, who said he has female relatives with eating disorders. “Now you’re going to line ‘em up in class and do monitoring so you reinforce that.”
States including Arkansas have gone after overweight children with obesity report cards and other measures. Slimming down Minnesota’s population would save money and improve health, said Rep. Diane Loeffler, the bill’s House sponsor.
Wente reports for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Herald. This report also includes material from The Associated Press.
