SAINT PAUL, Minn. – (June21, 2017) – The Minnesota legislative session went into overtime, but lawmakers passed all the omnibus budget bills needed to keep the state running and Governor Dayton has signed them into law. This week after a few days away from the Capitol local lawmakers reacted to the end of the session.
“That’s generally how it goes if you look at the last several sessions it’s always down to the last minute. Special sessions aren’t special anymore,” said Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine.
“It was surprising that we did end up having to go to a special session,” said Rep. Erin Koegel, DFL-Spring Lake Park.
“I thought it went more or less alright. We at least got done with them the first week, it wasn’t like 2011 where it got pushed in and shutdown then push in for a couple of weeks til after it was done,” said West.
“It was just kind of disappointing that that at the end of the session it was just kind of ramming budgets through instead of really getting that public input in the committees, in the conference committees, and then also making sure that the stuff that got put in was stuff that was publicly heard and not just magically appeared,” said Koegel
“As far as public input, all the bills that were included in these omnibus bills almost every single word was already heard in committee multiple steps in the way. In committee they set aside time specifically for public testimony so lots of the things had public testimony had already input on their individual issues,” said West.
“The problem is that the conference committees, you know there’s not very much public input when it comes to the conference committees, and then we are seeing policy and projects pop in to these bills that were never discussed in the committee process,” said Koegel.
The legislature passed a large tax bill with $650 million worth of tax cuts. Republicans are hailing the bill as a victory for the Minnesota taxpayer while Democrats are worried that it will put the state on unstable financial ground in the future.
“Getting rid of social security income tax, getting rid of that whole tax was enormously expensive, but we were able to put over $100 million into raising it cap,” said West.
“I think there’s some good things in there, there’s also some bad things in there…I am afraid that with such a large tax bill that we will be running our state into deficits in the future,” said Koegel.
Another achievement was the passing of a billion dollar bonding bill. Both Koegel and West were happy to see local projects included.
“The Hanson rail grade separation…I was very happy to see that was included in the final bonding bill, and so then the next one is going to be Foley, because that’s also the most dangerous ones in the state,” said Koegel.
“The most important one to me was 105th Avenue, I heard about it constantly, and that was a huge issue, and it’s so exciting that we will be able to have safe travel between the two sides of the sports center, not to mention there’s a lot of people go through there instead of 109th,” said West.
Both want to see another bonding bill passed next year and have other items that they look forward to continuing to work on when they return to the Capitol next February.
“Highway 65 study, that’s going to be high on my to do list,” said West.
“I really hope that we can push further on the Minnesota Care buy in. I think a lot of people, myself included are seeing increasing premiums are healthcare dollars aren’t going as nearly as far as they can. Even though we might have access to healthcare that doesn’t mean we can afford to go to the doctor because high deductibles, co-pays, premiums. So I think if we could really work on the Minnesota Care buy in, allow people to have access to a statewide network where they can choose their doctors, their insurance company aren’t telling them where they can go, and have it being affordable and accessible where they are actually use the healthcare. That’s something I’m really excited to work on and push,” said Koegel.
Even with the budget deals passed and signed into law, legislators have left the session with different conclusions on the outcome.
“I just don’t understand why in a year of surplus, we made cuts, $400 million cut to health and human services,” said Koegel.
“I think it was a great way to show that divided government works, the Governor got a lot of his priorities, because he is the Governor, that’s how it works, you don’t get everything you want and even in one party rule, you still don’t get everything you want. That’s the nature of government,” said West.
“We often hear about government should run as business, but I don’t know any business that when they are making profits layoffs workers and cuts research and development,” said Koegel.
The fight at the Capitol is not over. When signing the budget bills into law, Governor Dayton line item vetoed all funding for the legislature. It is his attempt to bring legislators back to the Capitol to make the budget bills better and redo some provisions in the tax bill. Republican legislators have countered by calling the move unconstitutional and are gearing up for a legal fight.
