Pawlenty rejects transportation plan

Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a $6.6 billion transportation bill with one push of a stamp behind closed doors Friday, and a scramble to find enough votes to override the governor -- or to make sure that doesn't happen -- was taking place across Minnesota.

In St. Cloud, Chamber of Commerce President Teresa Bohnen was making an uphill attempt to convince the many Republican legislators in her area who voted against the proposal to change their minds.

Rep. Bud Heidgerken, R-Freeport, one of six Republicans to vote for the plan, found himself on the phone Friday with DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. He said he had not made up his mind to override the governor and feared doing so could cost him his reelection.

The override vote could come as early as Monday.

Minnesota Chamber of Commerce President David Olson said his organization had lost at least two medium-size corporate members that were upset with the chamber's pivotal endorsement of the legislation. Olson, who said the chamber also had drawn the ire of anti-tax groups that are frequently allies, said he was not overly optimistic about the bill's prospects.

"I think getting Republicans to vote to override the governor on this bill this early in the session is going to be tough," he said.

DFLers and Republicans spent Friday sifting through the votes in the House, where 90 are needed for an override. On Thursday, 89 House members voted for a plan that would fund improvements to roads and bridges by raising the state gas tax for the first time in 20 years, impose a quarter-cent sales tax increase in the Twin Cities metro area for transit and raise license tab fees.

That vote came just hours after the chamber endorsed the legislation following DFLers' agreement to scale back the size of the metrowide sales tax. Olson said that he was on the phone with Kelliher working out last-minute details even as the House was debating the legislation and that the organization's support may not have had enough time to produce a larger vote.

After the House vote, the Senate approved the bill 47-20.

One determining factor on Monday could be whether undecided legislators believe DFLers, who have vowed they will not bring up another transportation bill this year should the override attempt fail. In assessing the attempt to cast Monday's vote as a now-or-never showdown, the chamber's Olson noted that the legislative session had concluded only its second week and said that "if [the override] doesn't work, I hope it's not the last conversation."

DFLers said they were confident they would find one more vote over the weekend, and Kelliher said that at least one of two DFLers who voted against the legislation could likely be counted on Monday. Republicans, including the governor, remained equally confident.

"This bill is too large," Pawlenty said on his weekly radio show Friday. "We have families and individuals who are struggling."

His spokesman Brian McClung went in front of the governor's office to announce the veto, modeling the "VETOED" stamp that Pawlenty used. The veto was announced before Pawlenty flew to Washington to attend a meeting of the National Governors Association, which he co-chairs.

Pressure cooker

Minnesota has gone 20 years without an increase in its 20-cent-per-gallon gas tax. The transportation bill would raise it by 8.5 cents over the next five years, using the proceeds to repair roads and bridges across the state.

In his letter, Pawlenty said the increase is too large. He also objected to provisions in the bill for a sales tax increase in the metro area of .25-percentage points without allowing voters a say.

Said McClung: "This is a bill that has a whole array of tax increases. This is no time for the Legislature to levy hundreds of [millions] of dollars of tax increases on Joe Six-pack and Mrs. Six-pack and their family."

St. Paul Chamber of Commerce President Kris Johnson said he was on the phone Friday with Rep. Neil Peterson of Bloomington, another Republican who voted for the proposal, to remind him that its defeat might scuttle the proposed Central Corridor light rail line linking downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Peterson, he said, gave no commitment but the talk left Johnson thinking that "the pressure cooker" for Peterson "is probably going to get turned up a notch or two."

Heidgerken said he was getting many phone calls and said some callers simply did not understand the issue's complexity. "There's some irate people out there," he said. But he added, "at some time in your life you got to stand up and say we got to do something. It may cost me my next election."

Sitting with House Majority Leader Tony Sertich in her office, Kelliher said Friday that she was more confident this year than when the DFL unsuccessfully attempted to override the governor on last year's transportation bill. "I believe we have the votes," she said.

Bohnen, the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce president, said the outcome will depend on whichever side makes the most progress by Monday. "It's going to be really an interesting weekend," she said.