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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Rachel E. Stassen-Berger and Glen Stubbe. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about Minnesota state senators

No signature for constitutional amendment

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: May 24, 2013 - 4:21 PM

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Minnesota governors have no power over constitutional amendments but despite that Gov. Mark Dayton has made his voice heard on the Legislature's moves to change the constitution.

When lawmakers approved constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage and require photo id for voting, Dayton symbolically vetoed them. Voters later rejected both amendments.

On Friday, after lawmakers approved a 2016 constitutional amendment to give the power over their pay to an appointed panel, Dayton neither signed nor vetoed the amendment legislation.

Instead, he let it move forward without his signature. The impact is negligible, even when he vetoed last year's constitutional amendments they still appeared on the ballot and if governor's neither sign nor veto bills after session they automatically become law.

But his lack of action could send a message about his feelings about the amendment.

In signing all the rest of the Legislature's bills, Dayton also let a measure raising the thresholds for audits of firefighters’ associations become law without his signature. The measure passed the House and Senate on overwhelming bipartisan votes.

 

Lawmaker pay amendment procedes without Dayton signature

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: May 24, 2013 - 4:16 PM

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Minnesota governors have no legal power over constitutional amendments. Despite that Gov. Mark Dayton has made his voice heard on the Legislature's moves to change the constitution.

When lawmakers approved constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage and require photo id for voting, Dayton symbolically vetoed them. Voters later rejected both amendments.

On Friday, after lawmakers approved a 2016 constitutional amendment to give the power over their pay to an appointed panel, Dayton neither signed nor vetoed the amendment legislation. 

Instead, he let it move forward without his signature. The impact is negligible, even when he vetoed last year's constitutional amendments they still appeared on the ballot and if governor's neither sign nor veto bills after session they automatically become law.

But his lack of action could send a message about his feelings about the amendment.

In signing all the rest of the Legislature's bills, Dayton also let a measure raising the thresholds for audits of firefighters’ associations become law without his signature. The measure passed the House and Senate on overwhelming bipartisan votes.

 

Poll: Dayton approval down but still favored for re-election

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: May 23, 2013 - 12:11 PM

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Gov. Mark Dayton is facing a Minnesota electorate that is split on how well he is doing his job.

According to a new Public Policy Polling poll, completed just before the legislative session concluded on Monday, 49 percent of Minnesotans give him high approval rating and 47 percent give him failing marks. Those numbers are significantly down from January, when 53 percent of Minnesotans approved of the job he was doing and 39 percent did not.

Despite Minnesotans mixed feelings about the governor, they still favor him over potential Republican challengers. He has double digit leads in head to head match ups against 2010 opponent Tom Emmer and Republican candidates Scott Honour and Jeff Johnson. He has similar leads over Republicans Julie Rosen, David Hann, Dave Thompson and Kurt Zellers, all of whom have said they are considering a run.

Democrats can find other good news in the poll.

It found that both DFL and GOP legislators are more unpopular than popular but Republicans are even less popular than Democrats. According to the poll, 36 percent of Minnesotans approve of DFL lawmakers and 23 percent approve of Republicans. The DFL also has a narrow lead on a generic legislative ballot.

The poll also found that Minnesotans continue to be split on same sex marriage with 49 percent supporting and 45 percent opposing. The Legislature and Dayton legalized same sex marriage this year.

On other legislative issues:

  • Half of Minnesotans oppose to letting in home child care workers unionize. The Legislature approved allowing the voters to hold a unionization vote this week.
  • 54 percent support raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour. The House supported raising it to $9.50 this year and the Senate approved raising it to $7.75. The two sides did not reach an agreement and ended up doing nothing this year.
  • While 50 percent of Minnesotans support repaying the school shift, they were split on whether the state should raise taxes to do it. The Minnesota House approved a plan to raise taxes to pay back the shift but dropped the idea in the final deal.
  • 53 percent opposed using an increase in the cigarette tax to fund the new Vikings stadium. Lawmakers agreed to a Dayton plan to do just that.
  • And Minnesotans overwhelmingly supported allowing Sunday liquor sales. Lawmakers turned back proposals to legalize booze sales on Sunday.

 The poll included 38 percent Democrats; 27 percent Republicans and 35 percent independents but more people in the poll -- 38 percent -- described themselves as conservative than liberal -- 32 percent.

The poll had a margin of sampling error of 3.7 percent.

PPP Release MN 52313 by Rachel E. Stassen-Berger

Dayton, lawmakers join Mayo Clinic celebration in Rochester

Posted by: Jennifer Brooks Updated: May 22, 2013 - 5:31 PM

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How do you thank Minnesota taxpayers for a half-billion dollar gift?

Mayo Clinic does it with balloon bouquets, hand-lettered thank-you signs, and a choreographed cheering section.

"DMC! DMC!" happy Mayo staffers chanted Wednesday, after state lawmakers signed off on a plan to support Mayo's new Destination Medical Center project with some $585 million in state and local tax support over the next three decades. The cheers got louder as Gov. Mark Dayton and state lawmakers took the stage in Rochester to accept the thanks.

Dayton said passage of the "enormous, almost unprecedented" development project a "glorious day" for the state and the community. Other massive spending projects, like the Vikings stadium, took years, but the half-billion dollar Mayo bill passed in the space of a single session

"What a great day," said House Speaker Paul Thissen. The fact that the Legislature was able to sign off on such a massive project so quickly, he said, proves that "people working together and a community working together with the state government can actually accomplish something. I think that was a hallmark of what this last legislative session was about."

The Rochester celebration also drew Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk -- "What a difference an election makes," he told the crowd -- House Majority Leader Erin Murphy and members of the local delegation, including Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, and Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, who was the only Republican to vote for the Destination Medical Center plan after it was wrapped into a $2 billion tax bill. 

The Mayo funds, wrapped into a $2 billion tax bill, will steer $585 million to Rochester to support infrastructure improvements around the new downtown development. The state will chip in $372 million over the next 27 years, but only after Mayo, the city of Rochester and Olmstead County make substantial investments of their own. Mayo has pledged billions to the project — $3.5 billion of its own money and another $2 billion in private investments.

"We're the land of 10,000 lakes and 14,000 physicians," joked Rep. Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester, who guided the Mayo bill through a rocky session. "I am so excited to see what happens next."

What happens next will be decided over the next few months. The Destination Medical Center's new governing board will come together and begin deciding which projects will be built first. No state tax dollars will flow until at least $200 million in private investment have been poured into the project.

The to-do list includes everything from expanding the Mayo campus to upgrading the downtown with new hotels, restaurants and cultural attractions.

The Mayo bill took a beating from skeptical lawmakers, particularly after Mayo CEO John Noseworthy warned that if Minnesota didn't come up with the money, there were 49 other states that would be happy to open their doors to Mayo. Dayton rose to Noseworthy's defense Wednesday.

"You got criticized unfairly for this. I get criticized unfairly by the Legislature every day" Dayton said. "But there are 49 other states that would really love to have this opportunity." As the crowd in the Mayo lobby applauded and laughed, he added, "It's the truth. We are incredibly fortunate to have Mayo here."

Noseworthy thanked lawmakers for doing what many thought could not be done -- passing the expensive, complex Destination Medical Center financing bill in a single session. And since the Legislature came through for Mayo, he said, Mayo plans to stay right here in Rochester.

"It's a great day to be a Minnesotan, a great day to call Rochester our home," Noseworthy said. "Based on this legislation, Mayo Clinic is prepared to invest in Minnesota, where we've been for 149 years, and now we'll be even stronger, for generations to come."

 

 

Bonding battle takes to YouTube

Posted by: Jennifer Brooks Updated: May 21, 2013 - 3:00 PM

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With just hours left in the session, and major bills still in limbo, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk fired a shot across the House's bow.

A video, posted by the nonpartisan Senate Media Service, went up on YouTube Monday evening, showing Bakk pointedly wondering when the House planned to send the Senate the tax and bonding bills. The legislative year ends at midnight.

The Senate DFL Caucus gleefully reposted a copy of the video on its own site, but yanked it down almost as quickly. The bonding debate in the House began shortly afterward.

The video shows an exchange between Bakk and Minority Leader David Hann, both pointedly wondering why there had been no messages from the House, as of 6:30 p.m., about pending legislation.

"We're waiting for the House to send us the tax bill," Bakk says in the minute-and-a-half-long video. "We sent them the bonding bill last night...They made a decision not to concur with the Senate, but what's interesting is that they didn't appoint conferees and send a message back to us."

The bonding bill is a sore spot between the DFL-controlled House and Senate. The House tried, and failed to pass an $800 million bonding bill last month. But some House members balked when the Senate sent a scaled-down $132 million bonding offer of its own to the House Sunday night.

 

 

 

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