Legislators gather to mend fences

02/10/2006

Forum aims to bring harmony to Capitol

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

They weren’t exactly holding hands and singing “Kumbaya,” but a large group of Minnesota legislators wrapped up a two-day workshop Thursday at the University of Minnesota with a lot of ideas and a few agreements about how the competing parties and houses can work more effectively and avoid another government shutdown.

Politically bruised after getting blamed for shutting down state government last summer during a budget standoff, 60 lawmakers brainstormed ways for Democratic-Farmer-Laborers and Republicans, senators and representatives to socialize, share power, streamline their convoluted budget process, get training and make their campaigns at least somewhat less destructive.

“I think all of us have heard from the public that (the shutdown) wasn’t our finest hour,” said Rep. Diane Loeffler, DFL-Minneapolis, one of the workshop organizers. “There is broad bipartisan interest” in avoiding another shutdown.

The bipartisan group reached consensus on one way to do that. They endorsed a bill introduced last year by Rep. Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover, which would authorize the Legislature to pass “continuing appropriations” that would keep state agencies funded at existing levels until lawmakers pass a budget.

The most innovative idea they generated, said another organizer, Sen. Sheila Kiscaden, DFL-Rochester, would make the lead minority party member on a legislative committee the “co-vice chairman” of that panel. That would give minority members, who currently are often shut out of the process, a more meaningful role to play.

It also would be one step toward reversing a decade-long trend of increasingly fierce partisanship in the Legislature.
DFLers often don’t talk to Republicans, House members tend to shun senators, and both sides have become more suspicious of each other.

For citizens, that means their lawmakers often don’t finish the work they need done.

“We want members of both parties to get together and get to know each other,” Kiscaden said. The group suggested several relatively simple ways to do that.

For instance, she said, the group unanimously recommended “integrating” the committees by allowing Democrats and Republicans to sit next to each other, instead of on opposite sides of hearing tables.

The House and Senate could set up parallel committee structures, hold joint House-Senate committee meetings and adopt joint rules, a tradition recently abandoned by the DFL-controlled Senate and Republican-run House.

They also would set aside a lunch hour when members could mingle informally.

The group, representing nearly one-third of the Legislature’s membership, will send their recommendations in a joint letter to the House and Senate DFL and Republican leaders, Kiscaden said. They plan to meet again March 13 for a progress report.

“We’re not going to stay stuck in the mud,” Rep. Connie Bernardy, DFL-Fridley, said. “These may be baby steps, but we’re going to move forward.”