Lobbying ramps up as override vote nears

02/24/2008

Scott Wente
Bemidji Pioneer
Published Saturday, February 23, 2008


ST. PAUL — A handful of Minnesota lawmakers are being lobbied intensely in advance of arguably the most-watched legislative action in recent years.

The decisions of a half-dozen House Republicans and a pair of Democrats will be critical Monday when the Legislature is expected to attempt an override of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of a $6.6 billion transportation package.

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, was confident Friday that the House can override the veto.

“There are a lot of people evaluating where we are,” Kelliher said, and she expects that evaluation to make the Democratic plan look better.

Both chambers must vote on a veto override, and top senators said if the House overturns Pawlenty’s veto, the Senate promptly will take up the issue. The votes are expected Monday afternoon.

Efforts to sway a few votes for and against the measure have been fierce, said Rep. Bernie Lieder, DFL-Crookston.

“I think there’s more public pressure and more lobbyist pressure than I’ve ever seen,” said Lieder, who authored the bill in the House. “It’s come to a head.”

Pawlenty did some of his own lobbying during his weekly radio show Friday as he urged Minnesotans to speak up regardless of their position.

But he also pointed out that some GOP lawmakers favored the spending plan, which fell one vote shy of a veto-proof majority in the House.

“There are six Republicans who voted for the bill and if they all vote to override me that bill’s going to go into law,” he said. “If you don’t like that, let your legislators know that.”

Before the bill reached a final House vote, Kelliher treated Reps. Bud Heidgerken and Dean Urdahl to dinner at a Minneapolis restaurant, where they discussed the transportation bill and other legislative topics.

Urdahl, R-Grove City, said the story of their dinner was overblown and that there is nothing wrong with legislators meeting to discuss an issue. That is common, he said.

“All I got out of it was fettuccini and free publicity,” Urdahl said of conservative talk radio buzz over the event.

Kelliher said she is not making promises to lawmakers to obtain override votes. Urdahl did not vote for the bill and said he was almost certain to uphold Pawlenty’s veto.

Heidgerken, of Freeport, was among the House Republicans who voted for the bill. Heidgerken said if he votes for the override, it would be a rejection of Pawlenty’s strict anti-tax stance, not of the governor.

“He boxed himself in a corner; I didn’t,” Heidgerken said.

Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba, a Long Prairie DFLer, has faced intense lobbying from within her own caucus to stick with the DFL on important votes. Otremba voted against the bill, but her position on the override was not clear heading into the weekend. Otremba is a committee chairwoman.

“The leaders of our caucus need to be there on those types of votes,” stressed Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, who occasionally oversees House floor debate in Kelliher’s absence.

Legislators, particularly the Republicans who voted for the bill, will hear from people on both sides of the issue as the override attempt nears, Juhnke said.

Some legislators say a major transportation plan is urgent, following the Interstate 35W bridge collapse last year and a recent audit outlining funding problems at the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

To be sure, Minnesota is not alone in its transportation funding pinch.

“There’s a number of states that are really experiencing problems with that right now and have very significant shortfalls in transportation funding, and that’s left a lot of states looking for additional dollars for transportation,” said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Like Minnesota, many states and the federal government rely on the gasoline tax as a primary source of transportation revenue. Only 14 states have raised the gas tax in the past decade, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota has had a 20-cent-per-gallon gas tax for 20 years.

The funding bill Pawlenty vetoed would raise the gas tax as well as sales taxes, among other new charges. The package has been described as a major investment in the state’s transportation system, but supporters also acknowledge it only funds one-third of road, bridge and transit needs.

Kelliher, the speaker, said House and Senate leaders made about two dozen changes to attract votes for their plan. Those changes also lowered the price tag by $2 billion.

“We have altered in every place possible,” she said. “We have listened to concerns.”

More lawmakers will move the DFL’s way once they study the bill, she said, adding that transportation funding measures are among the most complex legislators see.

Kelliher said she expects Otremba and another House Democrat who voted against the bill to be with their party to override the veto.

However, lawmakers on the fence are in for a tough time, she added.

“People probably are going to be under a tremendous pressure, she said.

Democrats insist this is lawmakers’ only shot at a transportation package this year. But as Urdahl stood at his desk on the House floor before he voted against the bill, he talked about the possibility of another road funding package emerging yet this legislative session if the override attempt fails.

“Many bills have been pronounced dead in 150 years in this chamber only to have miraculous resurrections,” he said.


State Capitol Bureau reporter Don Davis contributed to this story. Davis and Scott Wente work for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Bemidji Pioneer.