The PIM interview: Sen. Linda Berglin on unallotments, GAMC and the health care budget

State Sen. Linda Berglin (DFL-Minneapolis) (pictured) is appropriately regarded as one of the most liberal members of the Minnesota Legislature, especially with respect to providing health care coverage to as many Minnesotans as possible. Berglin spearheaded the legislation that created MinnesotaCare, a state-supported health insurance program primarily for working Minnesota families whose employers don’t provide an affordable plan. She has been tenacious in warding over raids to the Health Care Access Fund that underwrites MinnCare, and in fighting against eligibility and benefit cuts to the other state-supported programs, Medicaid and General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC).

But Berglin is no knee-jerk tax-and-spender. She possesses an unparalleled knowledge of the Byzantine bureaucratic apparatus that connects health care spending at the federal, state and local levels, and uses that expertise to uncover literally millions of dollars worth of savings and efficiencies for state taxpayers every budget session. That’s why even a caustic partisan such as Sen. Dick Day (R-Owatonna) publicly praised her during this last session as