The T Word: Tax conferees still waiting, and Marty Seifert does not carry around the governor’s brain

Last night the House/Senate taxes conference committee logged another three hours in discussing historic tax credits and angel investor credits, but once again they did not vote to add anything to their conference report.

The tension in the air seemed considerably lower than in some past sessions, however. Now that House and Senate leaders have confirmed that the major conference committees won’t be concluding their work by tonight’s deadline, the taxes committee is left in the position of more or less biding its time until leaders finish work on targets for the biggest spending bills that DFLers in both chambers are wrestling with (health and human services, education). Only then will the tax conferees’ target come into focus and allow them to start negotiating with the governor. In the words of one legislative staffer close to the committee, "they have to pontificate for a while" until that time comes.

The Senate’s multimedia page is featuring a half-hour excerpt of last night’s meeting. Co-chair Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) does most of the talking in the clip, but let the record note that the lone House Republican representative on the committee, Minority Leader Marty Seifert (Marshall) (pictured), delivered the biggest laugh line of the committee’s 23-plus hours of deliberations to date. Regarding the tax breaks and exemptions the conferees have been arguing over, he said, "I don’t know what the governor’s open to on some of these areas. I don’t have his brain in front of me."

Seifert continued: "But the reality is, the income taxes, the sin taxes, the home-heating fuel tax, eliminating the deductions–[these ideas are] not going anywhere. So when we say the governor’s not going there yet, ‘yet’ is never going to happen. If you didn’t know that, I just feel like I have to say that."

That prompted a retort from Bakk: "Rep. Seifert, the reason the governor’s budget works… [is that] he borrows a billion dollars [through tobacco revenue bonds] to do it. He sells the bonds–takes a billion dollars out of future budgets, pulls it forward into this year to come up with a balanced budget now. And the really irresponsible thing is that after the November 2010 election, what are we going to leave for the next governor and next Legislature? An immediate $2.5 billion deficit or more, under the governor’s proposal. What kind of job are we doing, people?

"How is that being responsible, to say we’ll just let the next Legislature and the next governor deal with it? There’s a $2.5 billion problem, but it’s not our problem. We’ll just hand it off to them."