Almanac: At the Capitol

The legislative session must end at midnight and a budget deal between legislators and the governor seems unlikely. The House passed a bill to change the way the seat belt law is enforced and debated medical marijuana for the first time. Over the weekend lawmakers failed to override the governor's vetoes.

View the Capitol Update for May 18, 2009.

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.

It's a rare sight:  A board full of green votes.  It was a bi-partisan day in the House.  The Public Safety budget bill passed unanimously with 134 yes votes.  Even the minority leader spoke in favor of it. 

Rep. Tom Emmer got three amendments on, most notably making DWI records private if an offender does not re-offend for ten years.  Emmer had DWIs back in '91 and '81, which the press revealed and now wouldn't know about under this bill.  Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher jokes that Emmer is "excused for the rest of the day" to celebrate after getting his amendments passed.  Republicans Anderson and Zellers got amendments on too.

Brandon's Law also has huge bi-partisan support from authors Speaker Kelliher and Minority Leader Seifert.  It speeds up authorities' reaction when an adult goes missing.  It passed big without opposition.

Meanwhile the Senate had bi-partisan opposition to its Public Safety budget bill that included a 7% cut.   It failed to pass the full chamber and then was laid on the table to get the caucus under control.  Then it came up again and narrowly passed 34-31.

About two dozen pro-tax people gathered on the Capitol steps to say "bail out the people" and "tax the rich."   Tasha Jackson from the Welfare Rights Committee said "the rich and their gambling ways got us into this" so they should get us out.  The chant that followed was "Hey, politicians here's the fix: Tax the rich!"  Before that the union-funded Alliance for a Better Minnesota wanted to remind people what taxes get.  Denise Cardinal said "taxes pay for schools, teachers, parks."  The group also questioned the grassroots nature of the anti-tax Tea Party today.    She said they're really organized by D.C. lobbyists, big oil and party insiders.  But reporters noted that the person who ran against Pawlenty for the GOP nomination, Sue Jeffers, is kicking off the rally.   More coverage of both rallies tonight on Almanac: At the Capitol.