The Legislature’s last Sunday: Capitol Notepad, May 17, 2009

1 a.m. update: Today was a rough day in the House, but the barrage of consensus bills that coasted through the evening’s late session should remind everyone that the Legislature still gets a lot of things hashed out properly. The pensions omnibus bill has been getting modified in the Rules committee. Minority Leader Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) said via Twitter, "We keep plodding on with bills. Entire article relating to teacher pensions is ripped out of Omnibus Pension bill in Rules Committee." Gary Carlson said via Twitter, "House Rules Committee meeting at midnight apparently to strip article 6 if the pension bill-the teachers pension benefit provisions. Murphy states that the rest of the bill is important and she doesn’t want to jeopardize the rest of the bill. The amendment deletes both the contribution increases to address the current fund deficit and the benefit improvement. 17-3 vote."
At the end of the day, these consensus bills that passed pretty easily: SF1481, which reforms budget reserve estimates and planning; SF501 which adds fetal alcohol syndrome to medical assistance; SF1219 on firefighter training; SF711 for children with developmental disabilities services costs; SF1447, a human services licensing bill; the slightly contentious SF1477 exempting the Redwood County Gilfillan Estate building from sprinkler rules (which Rep. Tim Mahoney (DFL-St. Paul) found a very unsafe prospect); SF1091, creating a weight restriction on the Stillwater bridge (we heard that truckers try to sneak around the weigh stations near Hudson via the bridge); HF1849 modifying a bunch of local government mandates; HF928 the omnibus transportation policy bill; HF804 on guardianship; HF519 on nonconforming lots in shoreland areas; HF417, a complex insurance regulation; SF1012, natural resources appropriations; SF722 on the nexus between background checks and mental health involving firearms; SF657, the omnibus stimulus-related energy bill, including local projects (some GOP members, such as Rep. Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud) over Twitter, razzed the conferees that projects would come to their districts); however this list is not exhaustive. We are pretty sure these were almost all conference committee reports, but not entirely certain, because we are entirely exhausted. (DF)

11:52 p.m. update: Rep. Steve Simon (DFL-St. Louis Park) makes the move to run things past midnight. There is much booing upon acceptance of the move, and also some rubber bands flying around (the GOP suspects Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul) is behind it.) A variety of consensus bills are cruising through, including SF1477, a bill providing a special exception for Redwood county Gilfillan Estate. Rep. Tom Huntley (DFL-Duluth) just busted out a joke that was seemingly based upon Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) about the $6 billion deficit, which got a good laugh. More to follow, sticking it out to the end. (DF)

10:50 p.m. update: As Sunday night draws to a close, House and Senate conferees working on the Legacy dedicated fundingpackage were still apart from inking a deal on the first dedicated funding bill. The House was under call for much of the night while debating the Governor Pawlenty’s vetoes, keeping conferees from getting back in the room together. Rep. Mary Murphy (DFL-Hermantown), the House chairwoman of the conference committee, said tonight that a final bill hasn’t been assembled and no conference committee meeting time has been set. The House and Senate conferees have exchanged offers in the last couple of days. But they haven’t come up on a final deal to pay for habitat and arts projects. Minnesota voters last November agreed to increase the state sales tax by three-eighths of 1 percent to pay for the outdoors, clean water, parks and trails and cultural projects. Pawlenty, in a letter to conference committee chairs Murphy and Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), said he’s concerned about some of the policy language that the House included in its bill that governs the use of funds. (CS)

9:50 p.m. update: The House DFL’s attempt to override Governor Pawlenty’s veto of a $1 billion tax bill failed on an 85-49 vote. DFLers Gene Pelowski ofWinona and Jeanne Poppe of Austin joined all47 House Republicans in opposing the override.Last weekend, Pawlenty vetoedthe tax bill that included a higher tax bracket on the state’s wealthiest earners. The bill also included an alcohol tax increase and a surcharge on financial institutions that charge high rates of interest. Rep. Laura Brod (R-New Prague), the lead Republican on the House Taxes Committee, during floor debatethe tax increases would curtail small business activity.