Minnesota’s legislature called it quits after a final day of negotiations that ran into the night. Agreed on by all sides in their hasty departure from the Capitol were a retouched version of the vetoed health care reform bill, a property tax juggling act, restored funding for the Central Corridor light rail line (and, coincidently funding for the Vermillion State Park, a pet project of the governor’s), increased Local Government Aid, and money for new polar bear cages at Como.
A couple vetoes by Governor Pawlenty earlier in the session were reversed on Sunday, after some deals were brokered. DFLers wanted $70 million for the Central Corridor light rail project. The governor said the LRT was too expensive, needed more study and he line-item vetoed it out of the bonding bill. It looks like what the train really needed was more grease. The governor got his $20 million for the Vermillion State Park, and Central Corridor is back on track – sans study.
Health care reform vetoed last week was resurrected with a bit of fat trimmed and a shiny new number pasted over the beat-up bill. HF3391 became SF3780, enrollment and budget increases were scaled back some, but it’s essentially the same bill the governor vetoed before. Property tax maneuvering and a compromise on use of the Health Access fund seemed to be the necessary lubricant to dislodge this bill from it’s deserved grave.
Some last-minute spending includes $300,000 for a new polar bear exhibit at Como Park, and $60 million in increased Local Government Aid (LGA). It may come as a relief to taxpayers to know that the legislature won’t reconvene until January of 2009 (unless the governor calls a special session), because Minnesota’s 85th Legislative Session was a doozy. This legislature passed one of the largest tax increases in state history, took a $2 billion budget surplus, turned it into a billion-dollar deficit and spent another billion on credit. No doubt, Minnesota could not afford a fulltime legislature.