By Kevin Coss and Trey Mewes

With only two days left in the legislative session after today, hopes are high among area legislators that a bonding bill will still pass.

“I think we should be able to find the votes to do it,” said Rep. Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea.

The bonding bill requires a vote in the House and Senate and needs to pass on a supermajority.

“A bonding bill is the type of thing that both Republicans and Democrats have to get behind to pass,” Murray said, explaining the bill provides a lot of money for roads, bridges and other matters like flood prevention.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe said committee chairs and majority leaders in the House and Senate have both agreed upon a bill that grants The Hormel Institute’s expansion its requested $13.5 million. Now it depends on whether the House and Senate floors will pass that.

The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday, and needs 81 to pass it. Sparks said the bill cannot receive a vote in the Senate until the House passes it, which pushes a Senate vote back to Tuesday at earliest. He said the Senate version of the bill is likely to include $30 million for flood mitigation efforts.

Despite votes on the bill coming over the horizon, Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said the bill isn’t what it should have been.

“It appears that only a very slimmed-down version of a bonding bill will be passed this year,” Sparks said. It is “nowhere near the level of investment we should be making in our economy and infrastructure.”

 

Taxes

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has vetoed the Republican-controlled Minnesota Legislature’s tax-cutting formula for creating jobs.

The GOP bill would have cut taxes by nearly $200 million over the next three years and, in the words of Senate Taxes Committee Chairwoman Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, spark an “immediate surge of economic activity” that would generate more jobs than the Minnesota Vikings stadium bill or a public works bonding bill.

The Senate passed the bill Thursday on a 41-25 vote, largely along party lines. The House approved it 73-57 Monday with two Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party votes.

Dayton has said he opposes it because it would create bigger budget shortfalls in the future. The state is facing a projected $1.1 billion deficit in the next two-year budget cycle, and the tax bill would add $145 million more in red ink, which he called “fiscally irresponsible.”

Rep. Jeanne Poppe and Sen. Dan Sparks, both DFL-Austin, mirrored Dayton’s concern. Each had voted against the bill as it was going through Legislature.

“We need to figure out the right balance,” Poppe said. “This certainly isn’t it.”

Sparks said it was important not to go into deficit spending again.

“If you start looking at the ongoing costs that would be associated, they would be pretty large going forward,” he said.

Rep. Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea, disagreed. He said before Dayton’s veto it was important the governor sign the bill so that Austin’s local government aid doesn’t take another hit in the coming fiscal year.

“The governor needs to take a good hard look at this and see how to make this work,” Murray said before the veto. Dayton was nearly on board with the bill a week ago, and the bill has toned down since then, Murray said. He added he was in contact with mayors and councilmen from around the Austin/Albert Lea area to spread this message.

 

Teacher seniority

Teacher seniority remains a major factor for teacher layoffs.

Gov. Mark Dayton has vetoed a bill that would have let schools lay off teachers based on their performance rather than simply seniority.

Dayton vetoed the bill Thursday, writing in a veto letter that the bill shows prejudice against public school teachers. He says it replaces the most prevalent system of determining teacher layoffs with what he called “vaguely formulated ideas.”

Under current law, schools must only consider seniority in layoff decisions. The only exception is districts that negotiate their own policies.

The bill in its current form would need to rely on empirical teacher evaluations. Legislators included a new statewide teacher evaluation system in last year’s omnibus education bill, but the new mandates have yet be revealed in detail.

The bill’s chief House sponsor, Rep. Branden Petersen, R-Andover, said he tried to work toward a bill Dayton would sign but made no progress after four separate meetings with the governor. He accused Dayton of siding with union special interests over students.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, said Dayton made the right choice to veto the bill before the state’s teacher evaluation system is in place. She also said the bill would take more power out of local district control while adding another state mandate.

“That bill was not quite ready for prime time,” she said.

Education Minnesota issued a statement Thursday supporting Dayton’s veto.

“Gov. Dayton said in his State of the State speech that education policy shouldn’t be a political ploy and he promised to veto anything that was,” Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher said. “He kept that promise today and our 70,000 educators thank him for it.”

 

Outdoors

Boaters will have to take a course on invasive species to legally trailer their boats, a wolf hunting season will be held this fall and hunting and fishing license fees will be raised, under two bills signed Thursday by Gov. Mark Dayton.

Dayton signed the game and fish bill, increasing fees and setting the state’s first wolf season. The state’s hunting and fishing licenses haven’t been increased in 11 years, and the Department of Natural Resources said its game and fish fund would go into the red without increases.

“It was a long time coming,” said Bob Meier, DNR assistant commissioner. “Now we can ensure Minnesota remains a great state for hunting and fishing.”

Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, voted in favor of the bill when the Senate heard it. He said a wide variety of people got behind the bill.

“Many environmental groups know how important it is to maintain wildlife areas here in Minnesota,” Sparks said. “It puts a level playing field.”

Rep. Rich Murray, R-Albert Lea, also supported the bill. He said many members of sportsmen’s clubs had expressed how important the fee hike was.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, voted against the bill, saying many people had issues with the fee increases as well as other parts of the bill.

The bill was OK’d by the House on Saturday night on a 68-62 vote and by the Senate 34-28 a few hours later. It raises the cost of a fishing license, now $17, to $22. A small game license increases from $19 to $22, and a deer license increases from $26 to $30. It also directs 50 cents from deer licenses for wolf management.

The increases will go into effect March 1, 2013.

A proposal to open the fishing season a week earlier this season was dropped from the bill.

 

Invasive species

A separate environmental policy bill will, among other things, make changes to help control the spread of aquatic invasive species like zebra mussels, which have been an increasing concern in many Minnesota lakes. Officials have been sharing ideas about more frequent and stringent boating inspections to control the spread.

“In the past our boating recreation messages were largely safety oriented, which is still important, but more than ever preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species has become a top DNR priority,” Col. Jim Konrad, DNR Enforcement Division director said in a news release. “We are urging boaters to take extra care when launching and loading watercraft to stop the spread of harmful aquatic invasive species in Minnesota’s waterways.”

The bill also aims to streamline and coordinate water management and water planning in Minnesota. The governor issued Executive Order 12-04, related to wetland management in Minnesota. Dayton issued the order to support and strengthen implementation of the state’s wetlands policy. The goal is to establish a process for stakeholders to assess and recommend action regarding how to maintain the state’s goal of “no net loss of wetland” — something state officials have been tossing Legacy funds toward for the past four years.