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By Laura McCallum
May 3, 2001
Part of MPR's online coverage of Session 2001.
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IF THE BUDGET PROPOSALS OFFERED BY THE GOVERNOR, the House and the Senate were legs on a stool, it would not yet be safe to sit down. With less than three weeks to go, the players remain far apart on key spending decisions.
Gov. Ventura's budget has been out for months; it keeps a lid on permanent spending and focuses on property-tax relief and reform. The Republican-controlled House agrees with Ventura's overall spending level, but its budget shifts the money around to put more into education and nursing homes.
The DFL-controlled Senate wants to spend more than the House and the governor. Finance Committee Chairman Doug Johnson, DFL-Tower, says citizens are telling lawmakers they want a mix of tax cuts and increased spending on education, health care and transportation.
"They're saying, 'We don't want to see the class sizes for our children go up, we don't want to see tuition rates become too high for kids who are going to college, we want to get our roads fixed, the potholes are becoming unbearable,'" according to Johnson.
On nearly every major funding bill, the Senate wants to spend more than the House; the K-12 and higher education bills are each about $100 million apart. The Senate also wants to use half of this year's surplus on one-time transportation, health care and higher-education projects, while the House and governor want to rebate the entire amount - projected at $856 million.
House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty, R-Eagan, says on most of the major budget issues, House Republicans have Ventura on their side.
"Our fundamental strategy is going to say, look, we've got the governor and us saying we're going to live within inflationary-level increases, we want big tax cuts, and if the Senate doesn't like that, it is kind of the two-on-one dynamic, and I think we're going to do a lot better this year than we have in the past," says Pawlenty.
The three players in Minnesota's tri-partisan government have yet to start meeting for final negotiations, but Gov. Ventura has sent letters to legislative leaders in recent days spelling out his views on budget issues. He has threatened to veto spending bills that contain an abortion waiting period, and has urged lawmakers to seriously consider his proposal to extend the sales tax to some services, an idea that's generated little enthusiasm at the Capitol.
Ventura spokesman John Wodele says while Capitol insiders like to speculate about the possibility of a tri-partisan train wreck, the governor is confident the three sides can work out a budget deal.
"There's time yet," Wodele says. "Two years ago, the last budget session, it came down to the end also. The Senate has to come up with its tax bill. Once the Senate has a tax bill, and we have the ducks in a row, then we can make target decisions and we can move forward."
Getting the ducks in a row has been complicated this year by a couple of factors. The Senate has a new Finance Committee structure, and none of its budget bills - save higher education - match up directly with the House bills.
House and Senate leaders are still working out the details of conference committees, which were originally scheduled to start meeting this weekend. It seems like a daunting task to agree on a two-year budget in the remaining two-and-a-half weeks, but long-time legislators say they've done it before, and this year will be no exception.
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