On the air: Plenty of blame for shutdown

07/04/2005

Patricia Lopez and Dane Smith,
Star Tribune
July 3, 2005

Day One of Minnesota’s partial government shutdown saw state leaders getting together again, but it wasn’t to negotiate.

It was to spin and accuse.

With nearly 9,000 state employees out of work, House and Senate members spent much of the day in recess while the leaders held competing news conferences and took to the airwaves.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, a DFLer, and House Speaker Steve Sviggum, a Republican, decamped from the Capitol on Friday afternoon to tape “At Issue,” a Sunday morning news show on KSTP-TV.

The trio also appeared on TPT’s “Almanac,” a Friday evening public affairs program. But no negotiations were scheduled and late Friday afternoon Pawlenty said he thought the Taxes Working Group—a special-session compilation of Senate and House tax committee members—should mull over some revenue options.

Headed by two of the Legislature’s most diametrically opposed members—conservative Rep. Phil Krinkie and liberal Sen. Larry Pogemiller—the working group was set to take up the Senate’s latest offer Friday night, but it was unlikely to reach quick agreements.

Johnson said allowing the working group to take over “works best,” adding that he had been uncomfortable all along with a process “where three of us or five of us were going to cut the deal.”

National news

Although other states are suffering from partisan budget standoffs, Minnesota is the only one to shut down some government services in 2005. National newspapers and broadcasters are picking up the story. Johnson said he was taken aback by all the calls he’s gotten from national media.

“This has become a national story in two respects,” he noted. “One, a state government shutdown in Minnesota, and the other is the political future of an up-and-coming Republican governor. I make no judgments about the latter. But I am concerned about the perception that the nation will have in regard to Minnesota’s state government.”

Senate DFLers plan to propose another “continuing resolution” today that would reopen state government for 10 days, while talks continue. Similar attempts failed Friday in both bodies.

Pawlenty and Sviggum both said they continue to oppose any “lights-on” bill, no matter how short, unless the framework of a deal had been reached first.

“Otherwise, you run the risk of institutionalizing gridlock,” Pawlenty said.

In a letter to DFL leaders Friday, Pawlenty said he was “deeply disappointed” at the Senate’s decision to adjourn before the midnight Thursday deadline. He called the shutdown a “premeditated act,” with the stage set as early as March, when Senate DFLers, voted on a “lights-on” bill that would continue 2004-05 appropriations.

Johnson denied that, saying, “We’ve never ever talked about government shutdown in a proactive way in the Senate Democratic caucus. It is not part of our agenda; it is hurtful to the State of Minnesota and its people.”

Fresh start?

As part of what he bills as a fresh start, Pawlenty said he wanted negotiations to focus on the amount of revenue available first, before any decisions were made on spending, a reverse from the approach until now.

Sviggum said he supports that procedure. Otherwise, he said, “you back yourself into a tax increase.”

Pawlenty made a point of saying on Friday that not only were revenues from a racino off the table, but that so was the cigarette “Health Impact Fee” both sides had agreed to and which would have generated $380 million. Pawlenty had taken substantial political heat for the 75-cent-per-pack increase, which many consider a tax.

“It’s clear that our offers to them [Democrats] weren’t meeting their needs,” Pawlenty said.

The day had started with a caustic Senate session, in which the Republican minority excoriated the DFL majority for its early adjournment the night before.

Johnson said the decision to adjourn resulted from “intelligence” he had received that House Republicans planned to send them a bill with “onerous amendments” that would force DFLers to take bad votes.

Pawlenty dryly blamed the move on “lack of intelligence.”

Senate Minority Leader Dick Day accused DFLers of employing the “Randy Moss playbook,” referring to the former Minnesota Vikings star who once left the field before the game was over.

DFLers fought back with new party chairman Brian Melendez on the Capitol steps, making the point that every single DFL legislator actually voted against the shutdown and for a lights-on bill, while almost every Republican voted against a resolution Friday night.

Asked if negotiations would be hampered by the obvious mistrust on both sides, Pawlenty said he was “not going to let that happen. You just have to suck it up and move on.”

Later he acknowledged the irritation of many Minnesotans: “People understandably are mad and frustrated at all of us,” he said.