Session ends in a blur, without roads funding

Published 10:29 am Monday, May 23, 2016

Legislature could retrun for a special session

ST. PAUL  — Minnesota’s legislative session ended in chaos and with a pile of unfinished work early this morning, as a last-ditch effort to fund both public works projects and road and bridge repairs failed in a blur of parliamentary procedures.

As the midnight Sunday deadline to pass bills fell, lawmakers had finalized some pieces of their plans to use a $900 million budget surplus. That includes a package of $260 million of tax credits and cuts to help farmers, parents, businesses and college students. They also passed extra spending on a statewide voluntary preschool program and broadband Internet infrastructure development.

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But despite working until the last minute, legislators couldn’t pass the biggest piece, a so-called bonding bill to fund construction projects and transportation projects. That unfinished business hung over the session’s conclusion, immediately sparking talk that the Legislature could return for a special session to wrap it up.

“My hope is that we’ll find a way to get it passed,” House Speaker Kurt Daudt said.

Mark Dayton

Mark Dayton

Legislative leaders from the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-led Senate immediately began casting blame on one another for the measure’s failure.

The details of that package — with more than $1 billion in borrowing and a chunk of the state’s budget surplus earmarked for the transportation fixes — were subject to no public hearings and didn’t emerge until just 30 minutes remained in session.

After the House hurriedly passed the bill, the Senate added a provision critical to urban Democrats that freed up some extra funding for mass transit projects that Republicans have opposed. As a legislative aide ran the bill across the street to the House chamber for final approval, House Republicans abruptly moved to close their session for the year — ahead of schedule, as the Legislature wasn’t set to adjourn until later Monday.

Lawmakers headed into the 11-week session that began in early March with a transportation funding package to provide a decade’s worth of repairs a top priority.

Still, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk called it a productive session, noting the tax bill and extra spending measures. But whether Gov. Mark Dayton would sign the bills was still unclear.

The Democratic governor has insisted that he wouldn’t sign a bill with tax cuts unless it was paired with spending he deemed essential, including $100 million to boost broadband Internet, another $100 million to tackle racial economic disparities and $25 million for a new preschool program. Though the Legislature approved those initiatives, only the preschool measure was fully funded to Dayton’s liking.

Dayton’s office has said he’d withhold comment until the final pieces of the Legislature’s spending plans fell into place. He has 14 days to decide whether to sign those bills, and Bakk said he met with Dayton earlier Sunday to make his case.

“I told him, ‘Governor, I think we’ve sent you a couple good bills,”’ Bakk said.

The tax measures sailed through easily in both the House and Senate. They included a new tax credit for college graduates with loan debt, expanded aid to parents with childcare costs and some property tax relief for farmers and businesses. Some Democrats objected a handful of reductions on tobacco taxes — including removing the automatic, annual tax hikes on cigarettes and other products that lawmakers approved as part of a major tax increase in 2013.

In another piece of unfinished business, the Legislature also failed to pass upgrades needed for Minnesota driver’s licenses to satisfy the federal government. Lawmakers worked for weeks to find a compromise to comply with the federal Real ID Act, which officials say will require new IDs be in place by 2018 to board domestic flights.

It would be up to Dayton to call lawmakers back to St. Paul for a special session, and legislative leaders would need to sign off on the agenda ahead of time.