A NONPARTISAN PUBLICATION APRIL 19, 2002 ESSION VOLUME 19, NUMBER 12 Weekly SMINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES • PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE In this issue: ENERGY PLANS DISCUSSED TECHNOLOGY ACCESS, BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS, AND MORE HF3715-HF3716 ESSION S Weekly Session Weekly is a nonpartisan publication of the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Office. During the 2001-2002 Legislative Session, each issue reports daily House action between Thursdays of each week, lists bill introductions and upcoming committee meeting schedules, and provides other information. The publication is a service of the Minnesota House. No fee. CONTENTS To subscribe, contact: Minnesota House of Representatives HIGHLIGHTS Public Information Office 175 State Office Building Banking • 5 Elections • 7 Health • 9 St. Paul, MN 55155-1298 Business • 5 Employment • 7 Insurance • 10 (651) 296-2146 or 1-800-657-3550 Children • 5 Environment • 7 Local Government • 10 TTY (651) 296-9896 Crime • 5 Family • 8 Recreation • 10 Education • 6 Game & Fish • 8 Transportation • 10 Director LeClair G. Lambert Editor/Assistant Director FEATURES Michelle Kibiger At Issue: Energy — Members of a House-Senate conference committee are Assistant Editor debating an energy plan not originally heard in the House. It would create a Mike Cook cleaner-burning coal plant. • 12 Art & Production Coordinator Paul Battaglia At Issue: Government — Since 1878, the Legislative Audit Commission has reported on the success or failure of various programs. Legislators help direct Writers David Maeda, Lisa Hilton, which programs are measured. • 13 Sarah McKenzie, Theresa Stahl At Issue: Technology — Legislators are advocating for funding to provide better Chief Photographer high-speed Internet access for rural Minnesotans. • 14 Tom Olmscheid Photographers People — Rep. Tom Osthoff (DFL-St. Paul), an advocate for St. Paul projects Andrew Von Bank, Becky Ekstam and environmental issues, is leaving the House after 28 years. • 15 Office Manager Nicole Wood People — Rep. Michelle Rifenberg (R-La Crescent) will step down after this term, due in large part to the fact that portions of her district were included in Staff Assistants the district represented by Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston). • 16 Christy Novak, Kelli Lin Foster Policy — A trio of laws have passed this session to help better regulate Session Weekly (ISSN 1049-8176) is published municipal boundary adjustments achieved through annexation. • 17 weekly during the legislative session by the Min- nesota House of Representatives Public Information Office, 100 Constitution Ave., St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN, and at additional mailing offices. DEPARTMENTS/RESOURCES POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Session Weekly, Public Information Office, It’s a Fact: Bill Introductions (HF3715 – HF3716) 22 Minnesota House of Representatives, 175 State From the Great Lakes to the Gulf 4 Committee Schedule (April 22-26) 22 Office Building, 100 Constitution Ave., Resources: Reflections: Joseph R. Brown 23 St. Paul, MN 55155-1298. Minnesota State Government 18 Minnesota Index: On the road 24 Printed on recycled paper which is 50% recycled, Governor’s Desk (CH261 - CH344) 20 30% post-consumer content. On the cover: The State Capitol is reflected in a window of the Veteran’s Administration Building to create an abstract and fragmented image. —Photo by Andrew Von Bank 2 April 19, 2002 IRST READING F Legislature adjourned early in Budget stalemate 1986 with budget unresolved Members of the House, restless because bud- House, Senate conferees submit balancing proposals only to get-balancing legislation remains unresolved, have suggested the House should recess until have them rejected by the other side an agreement is reached. Some have even said the House should adjourn for the year and leave the cuts up to the governor. BY DAVID MAEDA severe, and the state’s budget reserves be re- Such a move is not unprecedented in House hase one of the budget reconciliation law plenished to a satisfactory level. history. In fact, that’s just what House leaders did was supported by enough members to Entering the conference committee process, in 1986. When a budget impasse prompted the Inde- pass both bodies twice and with the the Senate proposed an increase in the excise P pendent-Republican controlled House to pack up two-thirds vote necessary to override tax on cigarettes by 30 cents per pack begin- and head home for the year officially on Gov. Jesse Ventura’s veto. ning May 1 and an additional 30 cents begin- March 17, 1986, the adjournment sparked a con- Agreement on addressing the remaining ning Jan. 1, 2003. The tax would be indexed stitutional debate over whether one body can $439 million budget shortfall and how much to annual inflation rates beginning in 2004. vote to end the session without the other’s consent. of a projected $1.3 billion deficit in 2004-2005 The Senate proposal includes a plan to con- At issue was a $384 million budget deficit and to deal with has been more elusive. vert $245 million in planned spending for road quarrel between the House and the DFL-con- During the second week in April, House and improvements from cash to bonds. trolled Senate about proposed cuts to the state’s Senate conferees have exchanged offers, but An education provision would create a one- welfare program. The Independent-Republicans members of the conference committee say time savings to the state’s general fund of wanted a 30 percent cut in aid — a move op- none have been significant enough to get $312 million by changing the education aid pay- posed by Senate DFLers who countered with a plan for much smaller cuts. closer to an agreement. ment formula. Under current law, payments are Seeing no compromise in sight, House Even more difficult is crafting a final prod- made on a 90 percent current year and 10 per- Speaker David Jennings (IR-Truman) said it was uct that will receive enough votes to withstand cent following year system. The Senate proposed more responsible to adjourn sine die (Latin for another Ventura veto. changing the formula to an 85-15 system. without a date certain, signaling the end of a Rep. Kevin Goodno (R-Moorhead), a con- The initial House proposal would transfer two-year session) than to have “201 people sit- ting around drawing per diem waiting for five ference committee co-chair, said House con- $325 million from the tobacco endowment senators to come to their senses.” ferees remain opposed to any new taxes and fund and cut spending in a variety of areas, His remarks in a newspaper report continued: additional extensions of welfare timelines. including about $38.9 million in state govern- “What this boils down to is we have offered com- His counterpart, Sen. Doug Johnson (DFL- ment funding. promise on critical points. The Senate has said Tower), said the Senate remains firm that cuts The largest cuts would come in health and ‘no, no, no.’” The motion to adjourn passed 68-26 in an in health and human services not be too human services, including $61.6 million from early-morning vote, largely along party lines with many House DFL lawmakers voicing protest. The move prompted DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich to label Jennings “arrogant.” Perpich called the Legislature back in special session on April 2 to resolve the budget deficit. Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe (DFL- Erskine) called the House’s decision to head home “absolutely irresponsible,” arguing that conference committees were making progress toward a compromise. The Senate adjourned three days after the House, but the motion was “subject to any court determination” on the constitutionally of the House adjournment. Attorney General Hubert H. Humphrey III is- sued an advisory opinion arguing the House might have adjourned illegally because it failed to get consent from the Senate. The issue was not challenged in court. Article IV, section 12, of the state Constitution, states that “neither house during a session of the Legislature shall adjourn for more than three days (Sundays excepted) nor to any other place than PHOTO BY TOM OLMSCHEID that in which the two houses shall be assembled Members of the House-Senate budget reconciliation conference committee listen to a proposal without the consent of the other house.” April 12. The offer was one of many given by House and Senate conferees in an attempt to resolve the state’s remaining projected budget deficit. (S. MCKENZIE) Session Weekly 3 state services. Proposed adjustments include limiting General Assistance and Emergency General Assistance payments, consolidating the General Assistance Medical Care program into MinnesotaCare, and repealing an expan- From the Great Lakes to the Gulf sion of the number of children covered by the 1887 resolution endorsed canal linking Lake Superior and the Mississippi River state’s Medical Assistance program set to take effect July 1. In the early days of statehood, Minnesota’s Lake Michigan in 1848 at the cost of The initial offers reflected the House posi- commercial development was propelled by a around $6 million and there was a second tion of no new taxes and the Senate position natural system of navigable waterways. connection in Wisconsin, but the report of funding health and human services. Although railroads were fast becoming found that by 1909 commerce on those wa- “There is no way 45 senators will vote for the dominant mode of transportation by the terways was greatly diminished. the mean and cruel cuts to Minnesota’s most 1870s, lawmakers had not abandoned wa- Engineers questioned the commercial vulnerable citizens,” Johnson said. ter transport. viability of Minnesota’s proposed canal. Goodno said the House focused its cuts on The 1874 Legislature proposed an intrigu- It would take six days under favorable con- programs in need of examination and reform. ing civil engineering feat — the construction ditions to complete a trip, they estimated, and “The most vulnerable people we’re taking of a canal between Lake Superior and the Mis- barge traffic would be stymied by winter and care of.