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Pawlenty authorizes aid as DFL decries 'dithering' on session

The governor released aid for flood recovery on his own but hasn't agreed with legislative leaders on calling a special session or what a session would encompass.

By Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune

Last update: August 30, 2007 - 9:00 PM

With agreement on a special legislative session still elusive, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has unilaterally opened the state's coffers to aid flood recovery in southeastern Minnesota -- one of the emergencies a session would likely deal with.

With that action and his announcement that his staff has set up a new one-stop flood recovery website, Pawlenty continued to announce initiatives that suggest progress is underway, special session or no. And DFLers continued blasting him for not yet calling one.

Pawlenty authorized the early release Thursday of $25.1 million in local government aid to seven counties and 58 cities hit by floods nearly two weeks ago that federal officials have estimated caused $76 million in damage to private and public property.

The local aid checks, which normally would have been sent in December, will be sent to the local governments next month.

The flooding, which destroyed 300 homes, damaged 1,500 and ruined infrastructure throughout the region, redoubled calls for a special session, which was first discussed in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the I-35W bridge on Aug. 1.

Although Pawlenty has met with legislative leaders and staff members have continued to meet, no agreement has been reached on the scope of a session.

Pawlenty repeated Thursday that he is unwilling to call a session that isn't narrowly focused.

He has proposed $200 million in bonding focused on both road and bridge safety and flood relief, additional money for flood recovery and property tax relief. If a session were limited to those items, "I could call it tomorrow," he said.

He also has said he would support a gas tax increase of as much as a nickel a gallon.

"I've extended an olive branch to reach some compromise," he said during a radio interview. "It doesn't look like they're going to accept it, so we're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

DFL legislative leaders have spelled out that they want a more expansive session, which they would have the ability to control because only they can end a special session after the governor has called it.

In a letter delivered to Pawlenty on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher indicated they want to revisit the tax bill that Pawlenty vetoed earlier this year and the broad transportation bill he also vetoed.

Pawlenty said Thursday that a broader transportation bill could wait until the regular legislative session that begins in February.

In their letter, Pogemiller and Kelliher told Pawlenty they "are getting a mixed message; on the one hand, you tell us you cannot call a special session until we have agreement on the bills, and on the other hand, your staff only give us broad, generalized ideas about your proposed agenda." Headway toward a special session, they wrote, "is slow."

The DFL party was more blunt Thursday in criticizing Pawlenty for not calling a session..

In an e-mail, party chair Brian Melendez decried Pawlenty's "dithering" and "stubbornness [that] is blocking our constitutional processes from working for the public good." A few hours later, Pawlenty's office announced the creation of www.minnesotarecovers.org, a website in which homeowners, farmers and business owners can obtain information from local, state and federal government on assistance, cleanup and other flood-related topics.

At the top of the website is a quote attributed to Pawlenty: "The road to recovery is a path we all must share."

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184

Bob Von Sternberg • vonste@startribune.com

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