Haggling over human services budget continues

05/27/2005

Conrad Defiebre and Mark Brunswick,
Star Tribune
May 27, 2005

Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Republican legislative leaders showed signs of frustration Thursday over slow-moving budget talks with Senate DFLers.

Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, met for about 45 minutes in the governor’s office with Pawlenty, House GOP leaders and Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno over health funding.

Goodno countered an offer Berglin presented a day earlier that she said would prevent any MinnesotaCare enrollees from losing their health benefits—as they would under budget cuts proposed by the governor and the House. Berglin said she would study the offer and present it to other Senate leaders.

For the second day in a row, though, Berglin, the chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division, was the only DFL elected official to show up for the open-door negotiating sessions.

Pawlenty, who has pledged to meet daily to reach an overall agreement on state spending targets, was clearly frustrated that neither Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, nor Taxes Committee Chairman Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, showed up to discuss revenue options.

“We can’t write checks until we know how much is in the account,” Pawlenty said.

Johnson said later, however, that the first task should be to set spending levels based on an assessment of the state’s needs, “then we get to the revenue side. ... But the House and governor are not too happy to talk about the cuts.”

Johnson added that Berglin “is the best we have in negotiating the health and human services bill. She went with the full support of this office.”

The House, meanwhile, in its first substantive formal meeting of the special session, rejected a move to circumvent the governor’s office talks by setting budget targets in a floor debate.

“Why do we let others make all the decisions?” Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake, asked his colleagues. “We should let the body decide and get our work done now. It’s time for a change.”

But his motion to suspend House rules to allow for an immediate budget debate was defeated 108 to 21. Only seven Republicans and 14 DFLers voted yes.

Also Thursday, the first 15 bills introduced in the special session were headed by House File 1, a Republican proposal for “racino” slot machines at the Canterbury Park horse track.

Also introduced were spending bills covering K-12 education, health and human services and other unresolved areas of the state budget. Proposed constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage and to dedicate a quarter-cent of sales taxes to natural resources programs have also been introduced. Also on the agenda is a new version of the motor vehicle sales tax shift already passed that would direct more money to roads and less to transit.

The lone bipartisan bill proffered—from a group of legislators who backed the gasoline tax hike vetoed by Pawlenty—would rename state gas and vehicle registration taxes as fees.