You know the sense of relief you feel when you stop pounding your head with a hammer? That’s the relief I and many other lawmakers felt when the 2003 Minnesota legislative session ended on Thursday, in “extra innings.”

What did we do? The final product is a $28.3 billion general fund budget, a billion dollars more than what was spent during the last two-year budget cycle. The bulk of that money &045; about $12 billion &045; is spent on E-12 education. Some $7.4 billion is spent on health & human services programs, $596 million for state government, $2.5 billion for higher education, $688 million for agriculture, environment and economic development, and $1.4 billion for our courts and prisons. But much of the “new” spending is in the form of the state takeover of the general education levy which resulted in property tax relief and not additional money for our schools.

Some of the best legislation this session came in program reforms that change the way government does business. We adopted reverse auctions, in which the state sets a price for a product or service. Then vendors compete and bid online, all at a savings to taxpayers. We finally repealed the Profile of Learning and began the process of creating new, comprehensible standards. With the Profile gone as a political football, hopefully we will let teachers spend more time educating children and not on state mandate bureaucracy. We further lessened some of the mandates on nursing homes so caregivers can spend more time with patients and not on paperwork. These and many other reforms have been quietly enacted with the goal of making government more efficient and less cumbersome.

In all, the final budget spends hundreds of millions more than what the Governor first proposed – without raising state taxes – but relying on spending reductions, shifts and fees for services and in many cases increased property taxes.

But I remain deeply disappointed with the reductions in Local Government Aid in the tax bill. Although reforms were overdue in the way the state distributes aid, the prescribed medicine is likely to be worse than the disease. I think our cities will face a daunting challenge to balance their own budgets. I tried to change the tax bill in the House, but with no success. In the Senate, no DFLer had the courage to offer an amendment to the tax bill to fix the LGA formula and no Republican dared vote against the bill. I think it was a sad day for Minnesota. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next election. From my viewpoint, the voters have two choices — Republicans who voted like sheep or DFLer’s who would not fight. You haven’t heard the last of efforts to better balance the way state aids are allocated among the Twins Cities, its suburbs and communities in rural Minnesota.

Special session mania

Like it or not, legislative politics move slowly, and all the important decisions are made in the final days of a session, or more likely, in a special session. In fact, over the past 20 years, there have been more legislative meetings with a special session than without one! The state constitution gives the legislature up to 120 days to conduct business. That’s too much time, considering all major decisions are made during the final days.

We could improve efficiency if the legislature had fewer days to work with from the get-go. This session, we could have started on March 15 (almost two months later than the normal start date) and still finish when we did last week. I plan on introducing legislation next year to make it happen. If we save 45 days on the front end and still get out at the same time, we would save money. I don’t know about you, but special sessions aren’t so special anymore.

E-mail newsletter

Just a reminder, if you have a computer and internet access, be sure to sign up for my legislative e-mail newsletter. Just go to www.house.mn/27A, and enter your e-mail address after clicking on “Email Update.”

Got a question or concern? Write me at 579 State Office Building, 100 Constitution Ave., St. Paul, MN 55155, or call me, toll-free, at 1-877-377-9441. My e-mail address is rep.dan.dorman@house.mn.

(Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, represents District 27A, consisting of Freeborn County and part of Mower County, in the Minnesota House of Representatives.)