House GOP says no to fall session

10/12/2005

BY BILL SALISBURY and PATRICK SWEENEY
Pioneer Press

The prospects of the Minnesota Legislature returning to St. Paul this fall for a special session on stadiums went from slim to virtually none on Tuesday.

In a letter to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, wrote that House Republicans “overwhelmingly oppose” a special session, even one that would focus primarily on a University of Minnesota football stadium and leave stadiums for the Minnesota Twins and Vikings until later.

“I urge you not to call a special session,” Paulsen wrote.

With the House majority opposing a special session, members of the Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority decided there was no reason to talk about one, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said after a closed-door caucus meeting at the Capitol later Tuesday.

“Why continue having this debate?” Johnson asked.

Pawlenty still wouldn’t rule out a special session, but he acknowledged to the Associated Press that the “bulk of legislative leaders aren’t interested in moving forward.” He said he expects to make a final decision in a couple of days.

While the governor hasn’t given up on a special session, the chief sponsor of the Gophers stadium bill has.

“In Gopher terms, we have to go back to the huddle and call another play. It’s going to take a few more months to get this over the goal line,” said Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina.

Pawlenty has repeatedly said he would not call lawmakers back to the Capitol unless they had a prior agreement on an agenda, the content of the bills to be considered and a two-day session limit. He hasn’t got that and won’t get it.

The governor had asked House and Senate leaders last week to poll their members on whether they’d be willing to come back to the Capitol to approve a Gophers stadium and perhaps vote on a few other issues.

Paulsen was the first of the four leaders to respond, and his message all but closed the door on a special session. A Gophers stadium bill would not pass without the House majority’s approval.

After surveying House Republicans, Paulsen wrote: “Very few are willing to say publicly what is on the minds of most legislators and the overwhelming majority of the public: A special session for stadiums or any other non-emergency issues is the wrong idea at the wrong time.”

Paulsen added that he has “no doubt that a Gopher stadium will enjoy broad, bipartisan support when the Legislature reconvenes its regular session in March 2006.”

While Pawlenty has repeatedly said he was willing to call a special session for lawmakers to act on a number of issues — all three sports stadiums, a constitutional amendment barring gay marriages, another amendment to dedicate part of the sales tax to conservation projects, a hospital for Maple Grove and a bailout for a Minneapolis teachers retirement plan — he has not strongly advocated immediate action on any of them.

Legislators have lots of reasons for opposing a special session on stadiums, especially stadiums for the two professional teams:

• Revulsion to the idea of returning to the Capitol for another session so soon after the special session budget fight this summer that included a partial shutdown of state government, and worries that a second special session could be as rancorous as the first.

• Belief that spending any public money to build stadiums for billionaire owners and multimillionaire players is wrong, or at least outranked in importance by many competing needs.

• Conviction that none of the three stadiums competing for attention and money is a true emergency that merits a special session.

• Fear that lawmakers, especially those in swing districts, risk retribution from angry voters if they vote for public subsidies for pro sports teams.

After a 51-day special session this summer, most legislators aren’t eager to come back to St. Paul anytime soon.

“I lost my summer. I don’t want to lose my fall,” said Rep. Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont.

Paulsen, in his letter, said leaders in the closely divided and highly partisan Legislature — there are 99 Republicans and 101 Democrats in the House and Senate — could not guarantee Pawlenty the brief and orderly special session he sought.

“It is my belief — and that of many others — that your reasonable conditions of a pre-agreed agenda and ‘floor-ready’ legislation can not be adequately guaranteed by legislative leaders,” Paulsen wrote.

Not every legislator agrees that a vote for a pro stadium is risky politically.

“Whether we vote for a stadium or not vote for a stadium, it isn’t going to defeat anybody,” said Sen. Keith Langseth, DFL-Glyndon.

But other lawmakers said the fear of voters defeating pro-stadium legislators is real, although not as intense as it was after a 1997 special session when callers shut down Capitol telephone switchboards and the House voted 84-47 against a Twins stadium.

Legislators looking for an example of a lawmaker hurt politically by a pro-stadium vote do not have to look any further than Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope, the assistant Democratic majority leader.

“Most people would say I was a poster child for that,” Rest said Tuesday.

In 1996, Rest won election to her former House seat by about 3,300 votes. In 1997, she was one of the major sponsors of the unsuccessful legislation to build a Twins stadium. A year later, running for re-election against a stronger opponent who campaigned heavily on the stadium issue, Rest won by only 340 votes.

“The hit was unrelenting,” Rest said of the criticism directed against her advocacy for the Twins stadium. “There was really never any other issue that was brought up.”

Rest said she has not backed a stadium-funding plan since that campaign.

University of Minnesota officials were dejected, as their forward progress seemed stalled. But Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter said he hasn’t given up hope for a special session.

The Twins and Vikings also were disappointed.

“We continue to believe that the opportunity to solve all three problems with one bill would never be better than it is right now,” Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley said. “But we’ll continue to press our case.”

Twins stadium point man Jerry Bell said that while prospects look dim, “I’m going to wait to see what the governor says on Thursday.”

The university and the pro teams have been trying to hold lawmakers’ feet to the fire by contending that the stadium price tags are rising every month. David Vang, a University of St. Thomas finance professor, said Tuesday that the claim is correct.

“Construction costs always go up over extended periods of time, and right now it’s more crucial. The hurricanes are going to require lots of rebuilding. Right now, all construction firms and supply firms are busy. If we wait, we’re going to be at the tail end here,” Vang said.