Sen. Kiscaden: Legislative Update 10
05/23/2005
Dear Friends,
We have reached the final day of session. It has been a hectic couple of weeks and so I have not been able to keep up with my correspondence or send you an update. In the closing hours of the final day of our regular session, it is clear that we have not finished and will be coming back to St. Paul. Here is a quick status report.
1- Yes, We Are Getting There
2- Leadership and Compromise
3- Whose Turn Is It?
4- You Say Neither, I Say Neither
5- In Reaching Compromise, Who Did I Represent?
6- University and Genomics Funding
1- Yes, We Are Getting There
The 2005 legislative session ends today, under our state constitution we are required to adjourn by midnight tonight. We are certain to meet today right up to midnight, yet despite the Governor’s major compromise on cigarette taxes, we will be able to reach full agreement on the state budget before the strike of twelve. While it is disappointing that the Legislature will once again need to be called back for a Special Session to finish the budget, this has been a much more productive year.
Legislators took to heart the last election’s message from voters: “stop bickering and get your work done”. With the message of the previous election still fresh on my mind, I organized a two-day seminar at the Humphrey Institute in an effort to foster a spirit of bi-partisanship and cooperation. That workshop was proved to be the kick-off of a session characterized by a much more cooperative attitude. Political differences are clear, but this year with the numbers in the House (68-66) and the Senate (36-31) so close, the Legislature was a different place than it was the last two years.
As a result, we have been able to come to agreement and pass many pieces of legislation including the bonding bill that stalled last year, a new ethanol mandate for gasoline, significant changes to our laws regarding child support, increased penalties for sexual predators, and agreement on a major environmental initiative, the Clean Water Legacy Act.
It is disappointing that the budget agreement was not reached before the deadline, but major progress has been made. The division that I chair, State Government Finance, the Public Safety Budget Division, and the Higher Education Budget Division have all finished these portions of the state budget.
I am pleased to tell you that my division not only finished on time, but we are actually coming in $2 million below the Governor’s budget target for this section of the budget. We cut the legislative budget by over $2.5 million, every Constitutional Office will have a reduction, as will most state agencies. State government will be leaner as a result of this bill. Yet, we will be now providing fully funding the tuition reimbursement for our National Guard members, new programs for veterans will be funded, and we did not accept the Governor’s recommendation to eliminate the campaign contribution programs that are the cornerstone of Minnesota’s approach to keeping elections to state office open to the citizen and reducing the impact of special interests funding of campaigns. Over the past two weeks the members of this conference committee often worked late into the night. We started out with very different House and Senate positions, but we worked through all our differences in a respectful and straight-forward manner.
Even as we move to Special Session as soon as tomorrow, I am confident that the Legislature can reach agreement on the full budget relatively soon.
2- Leadership and Compromise
Last week Governor Pawlenty showed leadership when he offered a very significant compromise to fix the state budget: an increase in revenue to the state by taxing tobacco products through a “Health Impact Fee”.
Those of us who understand how strongly the Governor wanted to hold to his “no new taxes” campaign pledge, know that this was not an easy choice for him to make, but it was the responsible choice to make. We need to honestly balance the budget. We need to preserve Minnesota’s leadership in education and educational innovation. We need to preserve access to health care. We are not able to do so without new revenues.
True political leaders do what is best for those they represent. With his proposal last week, the Governor put the needs of the state above the promise made to the Taxpayer’s League and other conservative interests.
3- Whose Turn Is It?
In terms of negotiations, the Governor’s tobacco tax at the end of last week proposal is a counter-offer to the Senate’s controversial tax bill, which was the Senate DFL’s counter-offer to the Governor’s original budget proposal. This morning, the Senate DFL made another offer to the Governor in response to his tobacco tax proposal. The Senate modified a number of its proposals. These back and forth negotiations take time, but since all sides are making offers, and are modifying their positions, it is a sign that negotiations are progressing and a compromise can be achieved.
4- You Say Either, I Say Either
Do you remember that old song? The Governor’s proposal to increase state revenues through the “Health Impact Fee” will bring in about 75 cents on a pack of cigarettes. Is it a tax or a fee? With the prevalence of the “no new taxes” approach of the last few years, fees were okay, but taxes were not. Thus, we have many, many new fees that raise money for the state, but the money from the fees is often not closely related to the services the fees pay for. Most are noting that such “fees” are really taxes with another name.
The truth is that the “no new taxes” pledge is officially dead and it is time to move on. The Senate, the House and the Governor are in active negotiations about how to balance the state budget by reducing spending AND increasing taxes.
5. In Reaching Compromise, Who Did I Represent?
A number of people have contacted me or sent letters to the editor about my vote for the Senate Tax bill. I voted for the Senate bill so that we could proceed to negotiate with the Governor on having a balanced approach to solving our budget problems. We are one of only three states who continue to have a budget deficit this year. Other states which experienced deficits in recent years made changes that resolved their on-going problems. In Minnesota, however, we avoided a balanced approach and tried to solve our deficit problems with service cuts, delayed payments, and other accounting gimmicks. It is important that we take a more balanced approach.
You may recall that earlier this year I was the Senate author (and Fran Bradley was the House author) of a proposal to increase cigarette taxes by $1 a pack. The Governor is now proposing to increase tobacco taxes by 75 cents. You will not be surprised to hear that I agree with the Governor’s proposal and know that if we enact a tobacco tax, the Senate DFL will move away from its original income tax increase proposal. We are not quite there yet, but we are clearly now moving toward compromise and a more balanced approach to managing our on-going budget deficit.
To represent you in getting to this compromise, I have supported a strong counter-offer to the Governor’s budget in the Senate Tax bill*and it seems to be working. We now have active negotiations and a major compromise offered by the Governor.
6. University and Genomics Funding
There has been very good news in the Higher Education bill that has been sent to the Governor for his signature. The full $3.2 million in development funds will be available for planning and development of upper division and graduate programming at the University Center Rochester.
Another major issue for our area is $15 million in funding for genomics research by the Mayo-University of Minnesota Biogenomics Partnership. It appears all but certain that the funding will be included in the state’s final budget. Combined with the approval of $21 million to build new research facilities in Rochester, our area and the state stand poised to make significant strides in this rapidly developing new field.
I continue to seek to effectively represent you and our area’s interests as we finish this long budget negotiation process.
Best regards,
Sheila Kiscaden
Senator Sheila Kiscaden
District 30
325 Capitol
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-296-4848