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Big bills continue to stall at Capitol
With no agreement on spending measures, legislators are focusing on environment and transportation budgets.
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With two weeks before adjournment and $4.6 billion in red ink waiting to be addressed, legislators Monday moved toward passing the state's environment, transportation and economic development budgets amid growing doubts that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFLers could reach an overall agreement on spending without a special legislative session.
The House and Senate both handily passed a transportation finance package (H.F. 1309) for the next two years, but Republicans complained that without a final agreement on total state spending between the governor and the DFL-controlled Legislature the move was premature. DFLers countered that delaying passage would leave some local communities in a financial bind.
"There are almost 40 communities with rural transit systems that have cash flow issues that need to be solved immediately," said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm. "I would like to see an overall agreement between the Legislature and the governor right now, but that's just not happening."
Compromise on the transportation bill was made easier by a large influx of federal stimulus dollars for roads, but Senate Republicans objected to provisions that they said drained dedicated funds away from roads to shore up spending on transit.
Both chambers easily passed the energy and environment bill (H.F. 2123) Monday evening.
But House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said that, with the state's environment and transportation budgets representing roughly 5 percent of the total state budget, their passage was less than momentous.
"The reality is the big, big bills [such as taxes, health and human services and education], they're miles apart on each of those," he said. The regular legislative session must adjourn by May 18.
An economic development conference committee plan (S.F. 2081) surfaced other conflicts, chiefly over a provision that would forgive $33 million of a no-interest loan that the city of St. Paul took out to help build the Xcel Energy Center. Republicans strongly objected to the debt forgiveness Monday evening when the Senate took up the bill. The measure passed on a largely party-line vote.
Seifert said the St. Paul proposal, which could come before the House today, was a "big flash point" because some legislators did not agree with having the state forgive loans while it is financially strapped. "It's like a person ready to file for bankruptcy and then telling a friend who owes them thousands of dollars, never mind," said Seifert.
Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, a member of the conference committee, dismissed Republican concerns and said committee members had been told that Pawlenty would not veto the overall bill because of the Xcel Energy Center issue.
"It's not so much the content of the bill, it's the frustration [by Republicans] with being in the minority," he said.
Mike Kaszuba • 651-222-1673
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