Almanac: At the Capitol

The 2007 Legislative Session: It really is about education, health care and property taxes.

There's a joke running around the Capitol these days that says if you wake a member of the House DFL caucus from a deep sleep and ask them what DFLers stand for, they would all answer with the same three items: great schools, affordable health care and lower property taxes.

Reporters call it message discipline — which on a certain level it is. The best way to let people know what you stand for is by repeating it again and again and again, and during the campaign, our candidates made a point of telling voters again and again and again that these are our priorities.

But education, health care and property taxes are more than campaign issues. They are also our main priorities.

Members of our caucus made a conscious decision several years ago to focus on education, health care and property taxes because we were alarmed at the direction in which the state was headed when it came to these areas. We also did it because we believe these three things — great schools, affordable health care and lower property taxes — are the key drivers of Minnesota's future success and prosperity.

Our main task at the Legislature this year is crafting the state budget for the next two years. There are a lot of competing interests when it comes to the state budget, but this year everything will take a back seat to education, health care and property tax reform. That isn't message discipline. It's simply a matter of priorities.

The 2007 Legislative Session will be unlike anything we have seen in Minnesota. And that's saying a lot for a state that has seen wild swings in political dominance and the election of a former professional wrestler to the Governorship in recent years.

The election of 2006 set the state up for a particularly volatile session, both because of the huge margins the Democrats wracked up in both the House and the Senate, and the skin-of-his-teeth reelection of Governor Pawlenty. The selection of Senator Larry Pogemiller to become Senate Majority Leader adds a lot of spice to the mix as well.

All the talk of bipartisanship and the obvious future political aspirations of the Governor would lead you to suspect that 2007 will be a very productive and moderate-liberal session, but don't hold your breath. Democrats laid down the gauntlet by proposing a number of tax increases on the first day of session, and the Governor returned the favor by threatening to veto any tax increase.

So what can we expect? Or better yet, what's the best outcome we can hope for? Once the political statements are made and the partisan lines drawn, the legislature has the opportunity to make some real progress on closing the achievement gap in education (white students in Minnesota outperform their minority counterparts in educational achievement by huge margins in Minnesota), relieving property tax burdens, and improving state government service delivery.

But my bet is that the politicians will posture a lot, spend a lot, and accomplish very little that isn't symbolic.

I'm writing this blogpost in the middle of a crisis.

I am the president of a Local union that represents over 4,000 janitors in the Twin Cities Area. The contract for our janitors expired with the arrival of the New Year. The Friday before New Year's, 24 hours after giving us their very first economic counterproposal, our employers gave us a last offer. They told us they were not willing to bargain with us any further until we took our health care proposal off the table. We are seeking a solution to the problem of low-wage workers without access to health care. They don't want to talk about it.

Of our members who have access to health care, only 42% take it (a quarter of our total membership, as only full-time janitors currently have access to health care). And I can almost count on two hands the number of janitors who take family coverage. Why? The most cited reason is costs - when low-wage workers are faced with the choices of high monthly premiums, they opt to pay a heating bill instead or pay for groceries instead. When low wage workers and their families do not have health insurance, the emergency room doctor becomes the primary care physician. And everyone in the community ends up paying more for health care.

Our union is trying to find solutions at a variety of levels for the problems facing uninsured Americans. We have proposed a plan that would provide family coverage for costs much lower than what the average employer pays for health care. But they won't even talk to us. Our proposal won't solve our nation's health care crisis, but it would be a significant step forward. And we are willing to get to work and fight for it.

And so I write this quickly as we are preparing for a strike authorization vote. I have to get back to work.

I'm writing this blogpost in the middle of a crisis.

Our nation's health care system is in freefall. My wish for the New Year and the new session? That our Minnesota legislators do what they can in our state to fight the battle. Just days after his very close reelection, even Governor Pawlenty agreed that covering children for health insurance had to be a top priority of government. We need to take him up on the challenge and go further.

Senator Linda Berglin has introduced a bill that seeks to allow more people onto MinnesotaCare and undoes most of the damage done by Governor Pawlenty's first-term policies. Although Senator Berglin's proposal moves us in the right direction, it does not seek to achieve universal coverage. Few seem willing to do something truly bold on health care, because it would cost money and there is no political will among the new majority to raise taxes in a time of surplus.

They can, however, enact market reforms that would not cost the state anything but would make health care more affordable for those who have it. They could cap premiums paid to insurers. It would not cost the state and it truly helps families struggling to afford insurance. Obviously, the insurance companies hate it, but someone has to do something to move us forward out of this mess that we call a health care system.

I'm writing this blogpost in the middle of a crisis.

And we've all got to get back to work.

House DFLers released their top priorities today and the first bill would cover all kids with health insurance. They also want full-day kindergarten for every school district and more to the formula that funds k-12 education. Property taxes would decrease and 25% of energy would be renewable by 2020. What's missing from the House priority list is transportation and the tax increases that could accompany transportation plans like they do in the Senate. House Minority Leader Marty Seifert accused the House DFL of "hiding behind the liberal skirts" of the Senate when it comes to tax increases. The House is talking fiscal moderation and shying away from tax increases. The House is up for re-election in two years and the Senate has 4 years to hear from voters. I think there are also more moderates in the House from swing districts that could turn back a lot of tax increases in light of a $2 billion surplus. You do have to hand it to the DFL for pounding their issues "education, health care and property taxes" and now following through, at least vaguely since we don't know how much will be spent or exactly where the money will come from. House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher is a woman that is certainly on message.

When he entered office in 2003, Governor Tim Pawlenty set to work reducing a state budget deficit by forcing cities and towns to pick up the tab for vital services — schools, police, fire departments. Nearly four years later, homeowners in the suburbs are getting slammed with sharply-increasing property tax bills as their local governments struggle to provide for these necessities. It's an equity trap - rising home value assessments plus increased property tax rates have strained homeowners' incomes, but many also cannot afford to sell their homes in a suddenly declining real estate market.

It's a dangerous place to be, and the Legislature would do well to focus on this issue during the upcoming session. Tim Pawlenty's Minnesota has borrowed from Peter to pay Paul, and it's time to pay Peter back with some of the billion-dollar annual surplus recently predicted. Not all of it, certainly, but the state can provide relief to taxpaying homeowners without allowing increases in the alleged "wasteful local spending" of which Gov. Pawlenty has been so critical.

Once that's accomplished, it'll be time for the DFL to take its twin majorities out for a spin and focus on the bread and butter issues that put those big majorities in place - education and health care. Although it's tempting for DFLers to look at Gov. Pawlenty's recent proposal to provide medical coverage to all children in Minnesota as a political red herring, in reality, it's the kind of proposal that the DFL has been pushing for years - our legislative leaders should thank the Governor for coming around on the issue, and forge ahead on it.

The biggest change for the legislature is the new leadership for the four caucuses: Margaret Kelliher and Marty Seifert in the House and Larry Pogemiller and David Senjem in the Senate. I am very optimistic about this fresh start and with these new leaders there is certain to be new set of relationships and dynamics. As far as the budget in 2007-08, I'd like to see effective and responsible use of current resources without further burdening the taxpayers of Minnesota. Tax relief is one of my highest goals for this session. Some of the things we are doing work very well, and are an excellent investment of our assets; I believe others are desperately in need of reevaluation.

I am working on expungement legislation to make sure that once our courts have decided to give someone a fresh start and seal a record, that we actually make sure that private data harvesters aren't gaining access and revealing the records (like an incorrect credit report), and that law enforcement (while they should have access internally) do not disclose them publicly in response to requests from the public. It is important for people to have a second chance and to take responsibility for themselves and for their families.