By Rep. Paul Anderson
We are down to the final days of session and, although we finished passing budget bills earlier than in past years, it’s still going to take additional negotiation to wrap things up. A Republican senator’s father became gravely ill last week and she left to be with family. The result was the one-vote majority in the Senate was no longer there, so they couldn’t pass the last of the conference reports. That is supposed to get done early this week, and Gov. Dayton will not have our complete set of budget bills until that happens. He has promised quick action on those bills, which means that all ten of our spending bills will be vetoed.
What’s missing at the time of this writing early Monday morning is a global or complete spending target that’s agreed to by the Legislature and the governor. Until that happens, it’s difficult putting individual bills up for passage because the overall spending levels haven’t been agreed to. I think the key to having things fall into place is getting the tax bill done. The reason is that any increased spending we agree to in other areas must come from a reduction in the level of cuts contained in that bill. And with those tax cuts still not agreed to, that must be done sooner rather than if an over-all agreement is to be reached.
A dust-up occurred last week concerning the usually non-controversial agriculture bill. Fellow ag chair Rod Hamilton and I met with high-level administration folks, and we came up with the framework for an agreement. That didn’t last long as additional demands were forthcoming several days later, and the agreement fell apart. Someone on the governor’s staff then sent out a press release commenting on the bills we had sent him, and several points concerning agriculture were simply inaccurate.
All this took place the same day a coalition of 18 farm groups sent the governor a letter asking him to relent on his pledge not to negotiate further on buffer legislation. The list of those signing the letter was a who’s who in Minnesota agriculture, ranging from the corn and soybean growers to livestock groups, along with the Farmers Union and Farm Bureau. Gov. Dayton held a press conference later that day and was asked if he was waging war on agriculture. He called the charge “ridiculous” and said he represented all the people of Minnesota.
Hopefully, after a weekend of fishing in the St. Cloud area for the Governor’s Fishing Opener, we can move forward and come to an agreement on the state’s two-year spending plan. Adjournment is set by law for midnight on May 22, so we have eight days remaining to get it done. I think we will come to an agreement and avert a shutdown, which would start on July 1 if the new budget is not in place.
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