SESSION WEEKLY A NONPARTISAN PUBLICATION MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES • PUBLIC INFORMATION SERVICES VOLUME 26, NUMBER 20 • MAY 29, 2009 2009 SE ss ION WRAP -UP HF2389 - HF2407 SESSION WEEKLY Session Weekly is a nonpartisan publication of Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services. During the 2009-2010 Legislative Session, each issue reports House action between Thursdays of each week, lists bill introductions and provides other information. No fee. To subscribe, contact: Minnesota House of Representatives CONTENT S Public Information Services 175 State Office Building New Laws 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. St. Paul, MN 55155-1298 Agriculture • 6 Family • 12 Insurance • 20 651-296-2146 or 800-657-3550 or the Bonding • 6 Gambling • 13 Law • 21 Minnesota Relay service at 711 or Budget • 7 Game & Fish • 14 Local Government • 21 800-627-3529 (TTY) Business • 8 Government • 14 Military • 23 www.house.mn/hinfo/subscribesw.asp Consumers • 8 Health • 15 Retirement • 23 Crime • 9 Housing • 17 Safety • 23 Director Education • 10 Humanities • 18 Technology • 26 Barry LaGrave Employment • 10 Human Services • 18 Transportation • 27 Energy • 11 Industry • 20 Editor/Assistant Director Environment • 11 Lee Ann Schutz Assistant Editor Vetoes Mike Cook Budget • 31 Employment • 32 Housing • 33 Art & Production Coordinator Education • 31 Environment • 33 Transportation • 35 Paul Battaglia Elections • 31 Health • 33 Writers Kris Berggren, Nick Busse, Susan Hegarty, Sonja Hegman, Patty Ostberg BILL INTRODUCTIONS (HF2389-HF2407) • 53 Chief Photographer Tom Olmscheid FEATURES Photographers Nicki Gordon, Andrew VonBank FIRST READING : 2009 session ends with many questions left unanswered • 3-5 Staff Assistants FEATURE : Override: the Legislature’s chance to make law • 28-29 Christy Novak, Joan Bosard AT ISSUE : Energy upgrades planned with federal stimulus funds • 37 AT ISSUE : Holding firm on funding positions • 38 Session Weekly (ISSN 1049-8176) is published weekly during the legislative session by AT ISSUE : New law strengthens stimulus fund accountability • 39 Minnesota House of Representatives Public AT ISSUE : Jobs bill also makes ice hockey the state sport • 40 Information Services, 175 State Office Building, 100 Rev. 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MINNESOTA INDEX : 2009 session • 56 On the cover: Like the water glass on House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s chamber desk May 18, some members may have seen the glass half full and others half empty as session ended. — Photo by: Tom Olmscheid No easy fixes The 2009 session ends with many questions left unanswered BY NICK BUSSE he 2009 legislative session began and ended in uncharted territory. T When the 86th Minnesota Legislature convened Jan. 6, lawmakers faced the unenviable task of solving the biggest budget deficit in state history. Tax receipts were tanking, unemployment was nearing record levels, and State Economist Tom Stinson was predicting the worst economic recession since World War II. Despite all this, legislative leaders promised to balance the budget on time and bring the session to a successful close. First Reading continued on page 4 May 29, 2009 Session Weekly 3 First Reading continued from page 3 Whether they accomplished this depends on whom you ask. Here are the facts: by the final week of session, lawmakers had passed, and Gov. Tim Pawlenty had signed, all the necessary legislation to fund state government for the next two years. Lawmakers had also passed tax increases and K-12 payment shifts needed to pay for the budget bills they sent. So far, so good. But legislative leaders and the governor couldn’t reach an agreement on how to pay for the appropriations. Arguing that increasing taxes during a recession would harm the state’s economy, Pawlenty vetoed the Legislature’s tax proposals, leaving an approximately $3 billion gap between state spending and revenues. Some saw the state careening toward a special session. PHOTO B Y TO M OL M SCHEID Things change quickly at the Capitol, Finance Commissioner Tom Hanson discusses the February budget forecast at a March 3 press conference however. In an unprecedented move that along with State Budget Director James Schowalter, left, and State Economist Tom Stinson. stunned legislative leaders, the governor announced on May 14 — four days before Paul Kohls (R-Victoria) saw it as a “backstop” In the coming weeks, Pawlenty will the end of session — that he planned to take to prevent the need for a special session; House announce his plans to close the remaining “executive action” to balance the budget Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL- budget gap. He is expected to delay payments himself. Having all the necessary budget bills Mpls) saw it as “bullying” and took it as a to K-12 schools and to cut roughly $1 billion in his possession, the governor said he would sign the governor wasn’t willing to negotiate from various state programs. He has yet to simply sign them and then use his authority to in good faith. announce what will be cut. unallot state spending to close the remaining On May 18 at midnight, lawmakers Whatever happens, Pawlenty has made one budget gap. adjourned the 2009 session without an thing clear: there will be no special session. Budget talks continued following the agreement. “The legislators are gone, and they’re not announcement, but quickly lost momentum, “We did continue to try to negotiate with coming back,” he said. with each side accusing the other of having the governor right up until the end. … But in thrown in the towel on negotiations. DFLers the end, I think the chasm was just a little too A session of firsts and Republicans seemed to interpret Pawlenty’s wide to actually just scale easily,” Kelliher told Before the session began, many had announcement differently. Members like Rep. reporters shortly after the House adjourned. predicted a virtual repeat of the 1981-82 biennium. Then, as now, Minnesota had a DFL-controlled Legislature, a Republican governor, a battered economy and a record budget deficit. That situation resulted in six special sessions, and was ultimately resolved with budget cuts and — despite the reluctance of Gov. Al Quie — tax increases. Despite the outward similarities, the 2009 session proved to be a radically different scenario. It wasn’t just that the deficit was bigger — though it was, a lot bigger. In December, Finance Commissioner Tom Hanson announced the state was facing a projected $4.8 billion budget shortfall. By the time the February Forecast was released, that number had been revised upward to $6.4 billion; however, it was announced that $1.8 billion in fiscal stabilization funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 could be used to whittle the deficit back down to $4.6 billion. Lawmakers and the governor came up PHOTO B Y TO M OL M SCHEID with very different proposals to close the Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivers his State of the State address to the Legislature Jan. 15. remaining gap. Pawlenty, who saw the deficit 4 Session Weekly May 29, 2009 PHOTO B Y TO M OL M SCHEID With Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s seat empty, the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy questioned, from left, Revenue Commissioner Ward Einess, Finance Commissioner Tom Hanson and Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman May 16 on the effects of line-item vetoes and unallotment. as an opportunity to shrink state government, In addition to the listening tour, DFL leaders proposed revenue increases. Republican leaders remained steadfast in his opposition to tax made extensive use of a previously little- denounce the DFLers for passing tax increases increases. Instead, the governor proposed known legislative panel — the Legislative they knew the governor would veto. Either way, budget cuts, payment shifts to K-12 schools Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy it’s done, and there is always next year. and a controversial plan to sell $1 billion of — to shed public light on budget negotiations The Minnesota House and Senate are future revenues from the state’s decade-old between the Legislature and the Pawlenty scheduled to reconvene at noon on Thursday, tobacco settlement. administration. During the final week of Feb. 4, 2010. It didn’t take long for DFL leaders to rip session, the commission met on an almost into the governor’s “tobacco bonds” proposal, daily basis to flesh out the governor’s budget which, as they pointed out, would have cost proposals live, in front of a public audience, the state some $600 million in interest over and on television. the life of the bonds. Instead of the one-time Republicans criticized both the listening tobacco money, DFLers proposed a package tour and the commission hearings, arguing of tax increases that would raise $1 billion, they amounted to public grandstanding providing a permanent revenue stream — and an ineffective use of time; DFLers along with a series of budget cuts that went defended them as an important measure of even deeper than the ones proposed by accountability. Pawlenty. DFL leaders said it represented “Another important part of this was doing fiscally responsible budgeting; Republicans things more publicly,” Kelliher said.