Krinkie quits working group over racino, cigarette charges

07/07/2005

Patricia Lopez,
Star Tribune
July 8, 2005

Frustrated at the glacial pace of negotiations and GOP leaders’ insistence on tax increases that he did not support, Rep. Phil Krinkie on Thursday resigned as co-chairman of the tax working group. Budget negotiations among top capitol leaders continued early Thursday evening.

Krinkie, who this year served as chairman of the House Taxes Committee, said in a letter to House Speaker Steve Sviggum that “both you and the governor have demonstrated your support for the expansion of gambling and increased cigarette taxes ... to satisfy the spending desires of the Legislature ... Since I strongly disagree with both of those revenue sources ... I believe I can no longer be effective as the chair of the House Working Group on Taxes.”

Krinkie, a 15-year veteran of the House who is a candidate for the sixth congressional district, said he did not know whether his resignation would also result in the loss of his taxes committee chairmanship. “That’s up to the speaker,” he said.

Sviggum, R-Kenyon, was in negotiation talks for much of the afternoon and could not immediately be reached for comment.

For six weeks Krinkie, R-Lino Lakes, has participated in a mostly genial face-off with Senate Taxes Chairman Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis. Known to his colleagues as “Dr. No” for his steadfast resistance to tax increases and government growth, Krinkie has found his philosophical polar opposite in Pogemiller, a resolute liberal willing to go to the mat for increases in school and health care spending.

After six weeks of meeting in the special session, the tax working group has made little headway on a solution to the budget impasse, even after Gov. Tim Pawlenty turned the matter over specifically to the group.

Krinkie said he simply could not any longer advocate for the cigarette fee increase and the racino that Pawlenty had proposed as ways to close the budget gap.

“The only progress we’ve made in six weeks is that the spenders keep winning and the taxpayers keep losing,” Krinkie said. “I include the governor now, obviously, among the spenders.”

More services restored

In other shutdown news, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees renewed its call for “lights-on” legislation that could put their members back to work while legislative leaders continue to negotiate.

Of the 8,800 employees idled by the weeklong shutdown, union leaders said, 1,400 have exhausted their vacation pay and another 3,000 will do so by the end of next week.

“If this were a large Minnesota company and nearly 9,000 employees were laid off, the governor and the Legislature would be working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get them back to work,” said Jim Monroe, executive director of the union, which represents about 11,000 of the state’s professional employees.

Numerous attempts to pass such legislation in the last week have all failed.

Meanwhile, on Thursday Ramsey County District Court Judge Gregg Johnson denied a request by the state’s largest unions that all state employees be returned to work.

But Johnson did approve a request by the state’s trucking association asking that over-size load permitting be regarded as an essential service. The permitting allows trucks with large loads to come into Minnesota and operate within the state. The partial shutdown had stopped the permitting process, resulting in some hardships to businesses. In one case, a shipment of military equipment, including a howitzer destined for Camp Ripley, had been stalled on the Iowa border.

Earlier, Johnson denied a request from the trucking group to re-open the state’s closed rest stops.

Johnson also granted a petition to revive freeway traffic cameras, electronic road message boards and crews that assist stranded motorists were on the verge of being revived with a determination that they are essential state services.

The cameras are used by police dispatchers to spot emergencies and by traffic watchers who alert people to tie-ups and crashes. The message boards do much the same thing and also carry Amber Alerts when children go missing.

A request to restore full driver’s licensing services was denied.