A narrow win for the GOP budget

03/30/2005

Dane Smith and Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
March 30, 2005


A budget resolution closely matching Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s spending plan for the next two years passed the Republican-controlled House by the narrowest of margins Tuesday, signaling that the GOP House caucus is a bit more disciplined and united than the DFL caucus on the fiscal front.

The closeness of the final vote, however, also is a preview to more intrigue and margins of a vote or two in a chamber with a precarious 68-66 Republican majority.

A 67-66 vote to cap general fund spending at $29.8 billion followed a nearly three-hour debate, mostly over an amendment sponsored by Reps. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, and Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville.

Their proposal, which would have added $358 million to the cap, unofficially targeted mostly for public schools, failed on a vote of 72 to 61 as six DFLers joined Republican leaders to oppose the additional spending. Rep. Ron Erhardt of Edina was the only Republican besides Dorman to vote for the amendment.

“This vote means the House of Representatives will stand by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and not increase taxes on families,” House Speaker Steve Sviggum of Kenyon said. “And we were certainly glad to see a number of Democrats vote against the $358 million.”

House Minority Leader Matt Entenza said some of the DFLers may have voted against the amendment because they thought the amount was not large enough or that the figure was otherwise “not right.” But he insisted that his caucus was “100 percent united that Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s plan for raising property taxes and fees to balance the budget is not right. ... It’s a road to ruin for our state.”

DFLers contend that Pawlenty’s budget forces local property tax increases.

Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, noted that Sviggum didn’t have the votes for his resolution last week and brought it forward when a DFL member was missing. Rep. Tom Huntley of Duluth was at a meeting of the Great Lakes Commission, of which he is the chairman. Sviggum said that Huntley’s absence had nothing to do with his decision and that he had said last week that he intended to bring the measure up for a vote after the Easter recess. However, Sviggum said that one of the lessons of the day was that members “should show up.”

The budget resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, described it as a 7 percent, $2 billion increase over the current biennial budget, “equal to $400 for every man, woman and child in Minnesota.” That amounts to about a 3.5 percent increase each year. The resolution limits overall state spending; decisions about allocating the money will come later.

DFLers, led by Rep. Tom Rukavina of Virginia, argued that the Republicans’ statistical claims were distorted. The projected increase was actually $1.6 billion, not $2 billion, because Republicans were counting an accounting shift for school districts as an increase, Rukavina said. Further, allowing for inflation and population growth, the state would have to spend about $600 million more than the resolution’s bottom line to stay even, Rukavina said.

The debate involved more than the usual amount of political threats. Republicans said DFLers would be pinned with voting for a $358 million tax increase. DFLers responded that the spending could be covered by nontax revenue increases that Republicans already are using heavily in their budgets, including an expansion of gambling and fee increases.

Dorman said the six DFLers who voted no to both the amendment and the budget resolution had cast “weasel votes.” The politically easy course, he said, was to vote against both higher spending and the lean Republican budget.

Among the six was Rep. Ann Lenczewski of Bloomington, who said she voted no in part because she believes that both measures involve a major new gambling operation and that Bloomington is a likely target for the location.

The Senate DFL majority, which has not passed a budget resolution in the same form as the House, has a sound strategy for dealing with the House and will serve as a worthy adversary in the budget battle, she added.