Leaders form plan to adjourn session early
05/03/2006
Windup hinges on construction bill
BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press
Minnesota’s four top legislative leaders — three of them of Norwegian descent — on Tuesday agreed they want to celebrate Syttende Mai by adjourning this year’s legislative session on or before May 17, Norwegian Constitution Day.
That would be five days before the May 22 deadline set by the state Constitution.
“For those of us of Norwegian descent, independence is not only good for Norway but for the legislators,” House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said after hosting a breakfast for the four leaders at his home on Portland Avenue.
Entenza, House Republican Speaker Steve Sviggum of Kenyon, Senate DFL Majority Leader Dean Johnson of Willmar and Senate Republican Minority Leader Dick Day of Owatonna held their first joint leadership meeting this year to discuss ways to wrap up the session. Sviggum said the meeting was productive and positive, although it produced no agreements on the few bills over which the two chambers differ.
“The bills that we’re bringing forward are not that great a distance apart,” he said.
The most important legislation of the session is a bonding bill to finance state construction projects. Johnson and Sviggum said they have tentatively agreed to keep the total cost of that bill below $1 billion. The House-passed bonding bill carried a $999.9 million price tag, while the Senate version cost $1.1 billion.
Once a construction bill passes, Sviggum has said, the Legislature can adjourn and go home.
The legislative leaders also want to pass bills to build stadiums for the University of Minnesota, the Twins and possibly the Vikings, but that legislation is bogged down in the Senate. Johnson said he wants to “untangle” that issue this week.
The four leaders and Gov. Tim Pawlenty are scheduled to meet Thursday at the Capitol to continue talks aimed at ending the session.
Entenza, Sviggum and Johnson have Norwegian ancestors. “We made Sen. Day an honorary Norwegian today,” Sviggum said.