Almanac: At the Capitol

Governor Pawlenty meets with Senate Republicans as they prepare for budget negotiations, and higher ed bills move forward in both the Senate and the House.

View the Capitol Update for April 14, 2009.

In their weekly briefings, DFLers came closer to talking about what taxes they prefer.  It all started with Sen. Sandy Pappas saying Local Government Aid cuts will result in property tax increases and that's not a fair tax.  When we asked what is a fairer tax Pappas said "the progressive income tax is the more fair tax."  So when we moved on to try to get an answer from Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark (who has been artfully dodging tax questions every week) agreed income taxes are better source of revenue than property taxes because "people who make the most, pay less of their income in revenue" but she said I was forcing her to jump ahead because the governor does not want to do it.

Moments later in their weekly briefing Republican Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem said "that's their choice, if they want income tax increases, we want to see their plan."  Senjem said again that he's waiting for a DFL budget plan since 40% of the session has already passed.

Then House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher said they did hear concerns about tax fairness in the listening sessions around the state, saying "I do think there is an overall fairness concern that Minnesotans are aware of... the question of ability to pay is a big question here."  In those listening sessions Dems say the stats are:  6500 people attended, 1500 people testified and 3000 budget ideas have been submitted online. 

But the most interesting story of the day relates back to the governor's proposed cuts to Local Government Aid.  Police, parents, prosecutors and fire fighters packed a press conference to announce ThankLGA.org which is basically a public relations effort to try to stop cuts to LGA.

Public safety made an emotional appeal saying every citizen's safety is threatened by the cuts.  We rode along with a police officer right after the press conference as he made an arrest in front of our cameras saying "LGA affects directly the number of cops on the street."  Hear more of the case being made by local governments tonight on Almanac. 

This unsigned anonymous note is what greeted me this morning in my Capitol office. Frankly, it's rather creepy to me to have people putting accusatory notes in my office when I'm not there. I have had people stalk me, who leave anonymous notes, follow me and have threatened to kill me. This is true for almost anyone who works in television, so we're a bit sensitive to such actions. So if anyone knows who is responsible, please let me know because it's at the very least highly unprofessional and downright creepy.

Now, to the specific questions: The creepy questioner asks "Do you have any evidence related to this charge?" First of all, in my blog post I wasn't making a charge. I was asking a question. "Veto Gender Gap?" was the headline. Note the question mark. I was reflecting an issue raised by four other people, not me. As was noted in the post, Sen. Anderson, Sen. Pappas, Rep. Sertich and at least one reporter raised the issue.

For further evidence, my colleagues have spelled it out pretty clearly in their stories. St. Paul took the brunt of the vetoes. The largest projects that were vetoed came from St. Paul: Central Corridor, Bell Museum, Como Zoo, and more. The female chair Rep. Alice Hausman is from St. Paul. One reporter saw her appear to be crying after the vetoes. Her St. Paul senators said she ran out of the governor’s office because she was so upset.

*Update, the governor's press secretary wrote the note and just supplied this response:

Mary –

I tried calling you yesterday evening and this morning, but have missed you. Please feel free to post this entire email on your blog if you’d like (in fact, I’d prefer if you did so my side of the story can be fully shared with your readers)

I left you that note around 6:00 p.m. yesterday. I came downstairs to talk with you, but when you weren’t there, I just wrote a note and left it. Unfortunately, I forgot to write my name on it, but after I slid it under the door I figured I’d just call you first thing Tuesday to discuss it. I didn’t intend it as an “anonymous” note, as I always planned to follow up with a call.

What bothered me is that, once again, you posted an untrue and unfair accusation from Democrats without contacting our office for a response. You did this on March 14 when you posted their claim that the Governor had not met with DFL leaders, which was not true. And now you post their claim that gender was a factor in the Governor line-item vetoes without contacting our office for a response. This claim is also untrue.

Several other reporters heard DFL legislators claim gender bias regarding the Governor’s vetoes. But none of those reporters actually reported on it, because the claim is ludicrous on its face. This is a Governor who has worked very closely with women over the course of both his private sector and public sector careers. His Lt. Governor is a woman. More than 75 percent of the policy staff in the Governor’s Office are women. His general counsel is a woman. It’s pretty serious to claim that the Governor took official actions with gender in mind as a factor. I believe, at a minimum, you should have given us an opportunity to respond before posting such a claim.

You also said in your post that “the question some reporters started asking is if gender looks like a factor.” No reporter asked that question in the press conference with Governor Pawlenty, so I guess you mean that reporters asked that question after some DFL legislators raised the issue in the hallway after the press conference.

Again, I apologize for not signing my name to the note I left you. And I agree that my handwriting is pretty creepy. I really need to work on my penmanship. Not signing the note was an unfortunate oversight on my part, but I just jotted it down standing in the hallway of the press corps yesterday evening. My concerns about your blog posting still stand, however. I look forward to continuing to work with you around the Capitol.

Sincerely,

Brian McClung
Director of Communications
Office of Governor Tim Pawlenty

Gov. Pawlenty hit projects hard that are close to House Chair Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul). Majority Leader Tony Sertich called it "personal" what Pawlenty did to chair Hausman. Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul) was very emotional right after the gov's press conference, saying the vetoes are "insults to chair Hausman." The question some reporters started asking is if gender looks like a factor with Hausman being a female chair. Hausman was at the governor's press conference but Pappas said she ran out because she was so upset. We haven't been able to verify that because Hausman has been tied up in meetings. But two female senators from St. Paul (Anderson & Pappas) saw gender as a factor.

Senate Bonding Chair Keith Langseth wasn't very upset afterwards and showed little emotion to the governor eliminating about $200 million dollars of the bonding bill he crafted with Hausman. The biggest shock in the Capitol hallways is Pawlenty's slashing of Central Corridor money. Few saw that coming. The governor didn't get a big project he wanted: Vermilion State Park. So lawmakers got something gutted they wanted too. Pawlenty noted that they already passed a huge transportation bill above his objections. The governor is keeping lawmakers on their toes; they really didn't expect a line-item vetoed bill since Pawlenty has been quick to take down whole bills. This reminds lawmakers of some of the unique and huge powers a governor has in a year where they overrode the big guy for the first time.