Almanac: At the Capitol

In shockingly speedy fashion the House and Senate have passed a constitutional amendment dedicating 3/8 of 1% of a sales tax increase to the outdoors and arts. The Senate debated for just 45 minutes and the House for just an hour (believe me that's fast) and bi-partisanly passed the bill 85-46 and 46-17. What's interesting is support for this wasn't a party thing. Dems and GOPers both voted for and against it. Some don't want to budget through the constitution, some don't like the sales tax increase, some don't like the arts and parks being added on. While much of the opposition in the House was Republican, many Northern Minnesota lawmakers voted against it — apparently they have had it with local sales tax increases.

It's amazing that this has had so much support from so many different people for so many years and it took a decade to pass. But amending the constitutional is a big deal. We'll see if voters are willing to raise their own taxes. It may have helped that House and Senate leaders Sertich and Pogemiller took over the bills to finally move them to the floor. The governor does not have to sign a constitutional amendment, it goes straight to the voters. But note Sertich's red rose for the special occasion. Here's the quote to match from supporters' press release: "With love in the air on this Valentine’s Day, the state Legislature passed some on to Minnesota’s natural resources and cultural heritage as it approved the landmark Great Outdoors and Heritage Amendment as its first piece of business."

We got a glimpse into the tone of the session today with an unusually combative press corps aggressively questioning Democratic leaders in their pre-session press conference. I think the press was annoyed by the lack of details. Essentially, Dems set up the pecking order for the top bills: environmental constitutional amendment, transportation, bonding/jobs bill (yes, suddenly the bonding bill has been renamed the jobs bill). The press pressed for details about what taxes are in play considering there is a nearly half a billion dollar deficit. DFL leaders did say there will be a gas tax and metro sales tax increase in the transportation bill and sales tax increase in the environment/arts amendment (which they call the "legacy" bill, but I think no one outside this building knows it by that name). But Dems literally walked out of the room as reporters were shouting questions about tax increases.

Now the other interesting element is the relationship between Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. Kelliher did the majority of the talking and Poge had to jump in. Many have noticed her taking a stronger public posture when posed against Pogemiller. At one point when we were asking why the environmental/arts amendment would pass this year when it failed to in so many past years Pogemiller said: "It would have passed if not for some dilatory action in the House." The crowd let out a collective gasp as Poge appeared to publically bash his counterpart. He had to quickly recover after not realizing what he had done and said, "I did not mean the Speaker." He was referring to House Republicans who launched a creative, chaotic but successful effort to block the amendment from hitting the floor in the closing hours of last session.

Later when Deputy Minority Leader Tom Emmer (who's learned to show his softer, sarcastic side to reporters) reacted to the press conference he said, "I don't think we should be tying up that kind of money." But he did say there wouldn't be any concerted strategy by Republicans to tie up the bill and caucus members would likely vote as they like. This environment/arts Constitutional amendment will be the first big bill passed by the legislature. The House and Senate are set to vote Thursday and it doesn't need the governor's signature to go straight to the ballot.