Senate avoids abortion vote

"MN Senate"

05/09/2006

Republican supporters of restriction chide DFLers during legislative maneuvering

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

The Minnesota Senate on Monday passed a state finance bill and, through legislative maneuvering, avoided a debate on a measure that would have challenged women’s court-upheld right to abortion.

The abortion measure, backed by the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, would have defied a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision that granted abortions to low-income women through state-subsidized health care.

After hours of closed-door meetings over the past several days, Senate Democrats opted to remove all human services funding from the $127 million supplemental spending bill. Without that language, the anti-abortion measure wasn’t relevant to the bill.

The measure would likely have denied all taxpayer-funded abortions in Minnesota except in cases of rape or incest and required a public record of judges’ authorizations for minors to get abortions without parental consent.

On the Senate floor Monday night, Democrats did little to discuss the reasoning behind the removal of the human services financing. But Republicans did much to attack it.

Sen. Tom Neuville, R-Northfield, alluded to the abortion measure he had planned to ask senators to vote upon, and he was blunt.

“Not only don’t you have any leadership, not only don’t you have any direction, now you don’t have any courage,” he said.

Supporters also promised that the abortion language, which has already passed the House, would return.

“Quite simply, you can run but you can’t hide from this issue,” said Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove.

After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said the health and human services measure will return to the floor at some point and there will likely be opportunity to try to attach the abortion language to that.

Despite Republicans’ disappointment in the process, the supplemental finance bill passed 64-3.

One of the biggest provisions in the bill would spend $32 million to fund education programs. Public schools would get in the Senate budget a one-time payment of $34.50 per pupil to use to reduce class sizes, provide all-day kindergarten, pay off debt, cover rising fuel costs or improve technology programs.

The bill makes a $20 million down payment on the Clean Water Legacy Act, a program to clean up the state’s lakes and rivers that is expected to cost $80 million a year for a decade or more.

It also provides $23.4 million for early childhood education and child care programs and $5 million to develop a University of Minnesota campus in Rochester.

The Senate’s DFL majority also tucked a provision into the bill cutting $700,000 from Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office. That’s the amount Pawlenty is collecting from 20 state agencies under negotiated agreements to subsidize the salaries of nine of his top aides.

The Senate also voted to slim down upper management in state agencies. The measure would save the state $8 million by eliminating all but one deputy commissioner from each department.

Last week, the House passed an $88 million supplemental spending bill. The House can either accept the Senate version or send it to a conference committee to resolve the differences between the two bills.