2001 Legislative session opens today Republicans control House and DFLers the Senate

Posted 1/3/01

2001 Legislative session opens today Republicans control House and DFLers the Senate

By T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

The 2001 Legislative Session begins Wednesday, Jan. 3, with 201 lawmakers taking their seats and embarking on legislative excursion scheduled to run well into May.

Over late winter and spring the stateís budget will be hammered out and the fate of the $924 million certified budget surplus decided.
Everything from ramp meters to privacy to election law will be discussed, debated, voted on.

Political fortunes will rise and fall ñ lawmakers look foolish and wise ñ as the hundreds of competing wills, emotions and voices of democracy are slowly annealed into a greater good.

The political balance remains the same as last session with Republicans controlling the House and DFLers controlling the Senate.

Once again Gov. Jesse Ventura sits the sole elected representative of the Independence Party. A caucus of one, the governor will serve again as one of the great imponderables of the legislative session.

In a game of two against one, on whatever side the governor falls, that side, Republican or DFL, can reasonable expect to carry the day.
And the administration itself has a Big Plan it hopes to pursue.

As far as money matters, House Republicans currently view the governor as kin.
ìAt least for the moment weíre (Republicans) going to be the Two with the governor against the One of the Senate on fiscal issues,î said House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, R, Eagan, recently.

Ventura has talked about presenting a lean state budget and given returning the $924 million budget surplus back to the taxpayers a high priority.

The governor has indicated that he wants another sales tax rebate next summer.
Ventura has also talked about across-the-board income tax cuts and further tab fee reductions.
House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R, Kenyon, said Republicans have been ìheartenedî by the governorís tightfisted approach to state finance.

Still, House Republicans, as indeed Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe, have expressed grave reservations over Venturaís tax reform package that the governor will likely outline during his State of the State address on Jan. 4.

In brief, the administration is proposing to broaden the state sales tax as a means of complete takeover of K-12 funding by the state ñ a $900 million a year commitment.

By doing this, the administration hopes to lighten the property tax burden by removing its educational portion.

Other tax adjustments and realignments are also proposed.

But House Republican leaders have expressed reluctance over expanding any tax in the face of the $3 billion budget surplus projected for over the next three years.

(The $3 billion includes the $924 million).
ìThatís a mixed message that I donít want to get into,î Sviggum recently said of expanding the sales tax.

ìAs a House Republican caucus, we donít want to send that message,î he said.

For his part, Moe said the governor will find it difficult to sell a sales tax expansion against a backdrop of a huge state budget surplus.

Moe gauged Venturaís chance of success as ìproblematical.î

Senate and House DFLers have added their own twist to the 2001 Legislative Session by saying they believe there are better potential uses for the $924 million surplus than to refund it as envisioned by Ventura and the Republicans.
Moe has suggested the creation of an endowment for the surplus and DFL leaders have said that taxpayers have told them theyíd rather see the surplus invested wisely than returned.

ìI would look at other potential uses personally,î House Minority Leader Tom Pugh, DFL, South St. Paul, said a month ago of returning the $924 million projected surplus.
To a large extent then, the story of the 2001 Session will revolve around settling the fate of the stateís whopping budget surplus.
The rhetoric on all sides will likely sharpen with the stateís February budget forecast.
Both Sviggum and Moe have declared it unlikely that another three-way budget deal would be cobbled together between the governor, House and Senate as happened last session.

But with 201 lawmakers sealed under the
pressure cooker of the Capitol dome for five months, anything could happen.
Thatís part of the fun.