2010 session outlook: Hurricanes, floods, a chance of locusts

Senjem: ‘Sometimes we have to laugh. If we didn’t, we’d cry’

Whatever the 2010 Minnesota Legislature does to confront the state’s massive budget deficit will have to be a long-term solution rather than a short-term fix, or legislators will find themselves merely “kicking the can down the road,” legislative leaders declared this week.

“I think it is solvable,” Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, told a group of about 200 lobbyists and other Minnesota political observers during a legislative preview panel in Bloomington. “But it will take some courage and backing off of various philosophical bents to accomplish deeper cuts and greater revenue than most people thought they’d do when they were elected to office.”

The four leaders of the Minnesota Legislature’s DFL and GOP caucuses sparred in (mostly) good-natured fashion at the panel discussion, which was co-sponsored by Fredrikson & Byron and Politics in Minnesota and moderated by Almanac reporter Mary Lahammer.

“The Legislature is where chaos becomes organized, rumors run rampant and on an hour-to-hour basis, and everyone wants to know what Sen. Pogemiller is either saying or doing,” Senate Minority Leader David Senjem, R-Rochester, told the group. “That will capsulize the 2010 legislative session.

“Sometimes we have to laugh. If we didn’t, we’d cry.”

Pogemiller and Senjem were joined by Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, and House Minority Leader Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove. The four responded to questions posed by Lahammer about the budget deficit, legislative priorities, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2009 budget unallotments, and the impact of last month’s court order calling into question the constitutionality of unallotment.

Kelliher, the only one of the four participants who is among the myriad candidates jockeying for party endorsements to run for governor this year, was also the only one on the panel who studiously avoided making specific predictions about the session - and, in fact, meticulously ducked a question about what will happen if she gets the DFL’s endorsement before the session ends. (Kelliher has said that she won’t seek a seventh term in the House, whether or not she gets the endorsement.)

“Speculation on that issue is premature,” she said, sounding as though she’d said it before. “I’m serving as speaker, and my caucus has supported that.”

Pogemiller, by contrast, was specific, and sometimes even blunt, in his answers.

“I think we’ll need additional revenue,” Pogemiller said. “I think it’s bordering on irresponsibility for this Legislature and the governor not to take a bite out of the long-term problem now. If we don’t, we’ll have what [former] Gov. Arne Carlson has continuously called a fiscal tsunami, and we’ll be headed toward an iceberg.

“If we don’t do something about it now, we’re not serving the future of our state.”

All four leaders, party affiliations aside, appeared unsurprised that a court found against Pawlenty’s 2009 use of his emergency budget-balancing powers.

“I don’t think any of us are endeared to the unallotment process,” Senjem said. “It was used because it needed to be used.”

Zellers agreed: “It’s no surprise that the judge ruled against Gov. Pawlenty,” he said. “And the unallotment statute is not the best-case scenario. We’d rather have a deal; we’d rather come together and have a common solution so that it doesn’t end up that the governor has to do something like this.”

Pogemiller, again, was more blunt: “The governor clearly overstepped his authority on unallotments,” he said. “It’s a bad way to run a situation. It was never intended to be used at the beginning of a budget cycle.

“I don’t know what the court’s going to decide, but … regardless of what the court decides, the fiscal math simply does not change. You either will make permanent reductions in spending or add permanent growth in revenue; otherwise you can’t solve a structural deficit.”

Pogemiller noted pointedly that although he’s served under “five or six governors,” Pawlenty is the first one who’s been unable to reach an agreement with the Legislature on a budget.

“It’s only been during the governance of this governor that we haven’t come to a conclusion year after year,” he said. “We’ve always been able to cut a deal until this particular governor.”

All four agreed in principle on a handful of goals, like finding a compromise solution to restore some level of General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) funding and concocting a package of job-stimulus measures in addition to this year’s bonding bill (see Charley Shaw’s story in this issue). And they concurred that the prospects for finding state money to help pay for a new Vikings stadium are dim.

“I think it’s highly unlikely to be successful in this type of environment,” Kelliher said. “This is a development deal, and if it’s a development deal, it needs to have more private capital. Looking for a way to attract more private capital is the most important thing.”

Zellers pointed out that even though the governor has met with Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, he doesn’t expect Pawlenty to support funding for a stadium. “We don’t want the Vikings to leave,” he said. “As a kid, I ran around wearing a Fran Tarkenton jersey.

“But to write a check for $500 million as a state - I don’t think that’s a plausible solution right now. And I don’t think raising taxes for it is a good idea, either. It would probably have to be a pretty regressive tax, and people who are suffering through tough economic times don’t have the extra money for that.”

The four also engaged in a little political humor during the 90-minute discussion.

At one point, responding to a question about the unallotment lawsuit scenario, Zellers appeared to refer to former Gov. Arne Carlson as a DFLer.

“We thought Gov. Carlson was a Republican,” interjected Pogemiller.

Zellers didn’t miss a beat. “So did we,” he said.

Later, Pogemiller pooh-poohed a suggestion that Pawlenty “might” be seeking the GOP’s nomination to run for president in 2012.

“He’s running for president,” Pogemiller said. “One of the things Minnesotans need to get over is this little dance of non-reality. He’s running for president, and many decisions that are being made are being driven by that, it appears.”

A few minutes later, Zellers politely disagreed.

“[The governor is] traveling around the country sharing his knowledge with people,” he said. “He’s not running for president” - a remark that was instantly followed by knowing laughter from the audience.

The group discussed the potential dynamics of having no fewer than eight members of the Legislature seeking a gubernatorial endorsement.

“I think the House offers a lot of great candidates for office bipartisanly,” said Zellers, who was elected minority leader by his caucus last summer to replace Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, one of that body’s gubernatorial candidates (along with Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano). “But we’re the House. We’re a bit more raucous; we mix things up a little bit.

“But I don’t think it will come as any surprise if Emmer and Seifert give more floor speeches this session.”

Kelliher said all members of the Legislature are “darn committed to doing their jobs right now.”

“I think this is a time where tolerance for shenanigans and being cute is sort of low,” she said. “We just need to do our jobs - to uphold the Constitution, to do work that’s respectful of each other and the institution that we serve in.

“I’ve been through this a couple of times, since this is my 12th and final year in the House, and I have to tell you I’ve watched a number of times before as people were running for higher office. Sometimes it does increase the number of times they raise the microphone.”

In the end, the 2010 Legislature’s main focus will be trying to fix an increasingly daunting deficit, the lawmakers agreed.

“We all want prosperity,” Senjem said. “Everyone at this table bleeds for the day when we’ll see a new and prosperous Minnesota. It’s just a matter of how we get there.

“We can’t flippantly talk about these things from a standpoint of ease or ‘gotcha.’ Well-meaning people need to sit back, think about government living within its means, and as we go forward try to weather the storm and make it through this.”

One Response to “2010 session outlook: Hurricanes, floods, a chance of locusts”

1. Peacenic Says:
   January 14th, 2010 at 8:29 am

   Kelliher and Pogemiller are incapable of understanding economics, but they both well understand their power in spending everyone else’s money. In just a few years they spent a $2 billion surplus, forced through $6.7 billion tax increase and fostered constitutional amendments and sales tax increases amid economic stresses not seen for generations. And they still don’t have enough “revenue”? Gov’t payroles exceed private? Can’t tax gov’t payrole enough to pay for itself. How will it increase revenue. Business? That embattled MN job creator that continues to find greener pastures in other states? Less revenue and more people out of work, losing their homes and filing bankruptcy. No doubt they will happily pay more fees, property and sales taxes from their rented hovel on assistance. Kelliher and Pogemiller both desperately need visit from ghost of Christmas future to bring stark dose of reality to these arogant, nanny state despots.