Almanac: At the Capitol

Both the House and Senate dove into their health and human services bills, and the Senate forced members to vote on the governor's cuts to health care.

View the Capitol Update for April 27, 2009.

The House passes a bonding bill, conservative nonprofits balance a budget big on cuts, and the Senate votes to end some state mandates.

View the Capitol Update for April 6, 2009.

The House DFL tax chair proposes a major overhaul to the system, rogue Republicans offer a budget different from the governor's, the Senate passes a bonding bill and Democrats push ahead on health care.

View the Capitol Update for March 16, 2009.

As Democratic Health Chairs Berglin and Thissen rolled out their "Cover All Kids" legislation, the inevitable question came up:  How do you pay for it?  Like everything lately at the Capitol, the answer is the feds.  Democrats aren't the only ones counting on the federal government for a bail out.  As we know from the budget preview interviews Gov. Pawlenty has done, he's counting on the federal government for some dough to lessen the blow of state budget cuts.

Another source of potential revenue seems to be surfacing--expanding the sales tax to services.  Some smart bi-partisan people have been studying the historic volatility of our budget shortfalls and surpluses; they have concluded that our sales tax is narrow.  Now the governor of course won't take a true tax increase, so if services are taxes, he'd want the overall rate lowered so an entire package in revenue neutral.   Speaker Kelliher has been dropping lots of hints about taxing services (like legal services, hair cuts, car repairs).

The love was everywhere. The love was bi-partisan. The love was coming from the governor to lawmakers, even DFL lawmakers. House Tax Chair Ann Lenczewski got an enormous amount of praise for helping making the whole end of session deal happen. Bonding Chairs Langseth and Hausman got humorous props too. Hausman who originally had her key project Central Corridor axed by the gov in the first bonding bill today said "we are celebrating and joyous." Of course the bonding bill creates the first new state park in 30 years, builds a new veterans home and starts a new transit line between the Twin Cities. Pawlenty noted that the "path was a little bumpy" on the bonding bill, but his strategy of line-item vetoes worked and many call it the turning point of the session.

Healthcare Chairs Huntley and Berglin (who could not attend) were also congratulated on a package that creates better affordability, quality and accessibility. Huntley said it was the most important bill in almost decades. The governor said it could create $7 billion in savings. It insures 12,000 more Minnesotans.

A couple of other notes from a fun and long news conference: Pawlenty joked that his vocal cords still had not fully recovered from his hockey injury. That could be an issue as he continues to stump for his friend John McCain, but his self-deprecating humor goes over well as always. He says he will likely veto the mortgage foreclosure bill that is sitting on his desk because it would make Minnesota "an island" and "drive up credit costs for the 89% of Minnesotans not in foreclosure." He will also line item money for California car standards from the budget bill because that policy language did not pass.