Almanac: At the Capitol

If we had a nickel for every time the House Minority Leader (let alone all Minnesota Republicans these days) used the word VETO in the last four months, we'd have enough money to fund All-Day Every-Day Kindergarten in every district in the state.

By certain leaders' overuse of the word, the public might swear it was the only legislative tool outlined in the state's constitution. Fortunately for those of us that prefer leadership and progress verses stalemates and roadblocks, the state constitution allows for more productive types of action.

More specifically to my friends across the aisle in the Minnesota House of Representatives, I encourage them to review their constitution as it dictates upon us the responsibility of appropriations, ensuring a uniform system of public schools, construction of state highways, the power to authorize public debt, and — much to the chagrin of many — the responsibility of taxation for the purposes of public school buildings, hospitals, and universities.

These are serious responsibilities that normally occupy the bulk of our work, but all the Republicans can seem to talk about are vetoes. For those unfamiliar with the constitution, only the Governor has the power to veto legislation, and even then, it is only within certain parameters.

As witnessed with the bonding bill, the Governor has the authority to halt meaningful progress with the veto pen. However, that is just one step in the process. That doesn't mean that the House and Senate will stop working for fully funded schools, health insurance for our kids, and property tax reductions for homeowners. It simply means we'll return to the negotiation table and keep working at an acceptable compromise.

In 1978, Minnesota foreshadowed the coming Reagan Revolution — that two-plus decade of political reaction at home and unilateral military adventurism abroad — with the election of old-time conservative Al Quie as Governor and right-of-center Rudy Boschwitz to U.S. Senate.

Twenty-years later, it seemed that Minnesota might again be foreshadowing the next great realignment of American politics with Jesse Ventura's upset victory in the 1998 gubernatorial race. For awhile, some political observers wondered whether third-party insurgencies — which got off with a bang with Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential Bid — might not end up dismantling the hidebound two-party system. At a minimum, it seemed possible that one of the two main parties might go the way of the Whig Party in the 19th century, eclipsed by some 21st-century version of the new Republican Party of the 1850s.

None of this, of course, came to pass; in retrospect, though Ralph Nader did mount a spirited challenge in 2000, it's easy to see that the forces that contributed to Perot's success in 1992, most notably a deep recession, were no longer operative during the dot.com speculative boom of the late 90s. By then a large percentage of us, sleepily unaware of the aims of some ragtag bunch of fanatics calling themselves Al-Qaeda, had deluded ourselves into thinking that we were gonna ride our Enron/WorldCom/Tyco-heavy stock portfolios right to the top of Big Rock Candy Mountain. Hard as it is to recall from the vantage point of 2007, in 2000 it didn't seem to make a dime's worth of difference (to quote an earlier third-party insurgent) whether George W. Bush or Al Gore were elected President.

But even as Minnesota has at moments seemed to be a political bellweather rather than backwater, the state has, alas, not proven entirely immune to pernicious developments on the national scene. For a time during the Ventura Administration, it seemed that we might take a pass on the bitter, scorched-earth partisanship that gripped Washington and was quickly infecting the states as well. For all his inability to exert consistent and effective leadership once in office, Ventura made a genuine effort to appoint the best and the brightest, regardless of party affiliation, to top administrative posts as well as to the state bench. And if nothing else, his victory in 1998 served to unite the DFL and Republican Party in a common goal of preventing him and the Independence Party from achieving a permanent foothold in the state. The motive wasn't pretty, but at least it generated a few years of bi-partisanship!

Which brings us to today, on the verge of not one, but three threatened vetoes of DFL-backed legislation in only one session: the higher education bill; the income tax bill; and now, a bill that has just passed the Senate and will be taken up (and likely approved on a straight party-line vote) by the House allowing the University of Minnesota to receive state money for stem cell research. In each case, one or both parties to these transactions — Gov. Pawlenty on one hand, DFL legislators on the other — is acting on that current bane of contemporary American politics: appealing to the base, regardless of the harm such narrow partisan behavior might cause society. The pending impasse is the dark triumph of politics according to Karl Rove, a man whose last name, incidentally, sounds like "rogue" spoken by someone with a mouth full of Jack Abramoff's dirty lucre.

As I've said, neither party is blameless. While laudable in its objectives, the Dream Act — that portion of the higher ed bill that would extend in-state tuition and other benefits to illegal immigrants — seems more like a needless tossing down of the gauntlet (and an appeal to that portion of the DFL base for whom immigrant rights trump all) than an attempt to pass legislation. But again, the lion's share of guilt lies with Pawlenty. There is nothing in the income tax bill, which would raise state taxes on a grand total of 92,000 of Minnesota's wealthiest citizens, then use the added revenue to offer desperately needed property tax relief to middle class families scrambling to hold on to their homes, that makes it a worthy target for a veto. That is, nothing other than the Governor's opportunistic "no new taxes" pledge made as part of his deal-with-the-devil to win the 2002 endorsement. Just how many families are going to have to go bankrupt before Mr. Pawlenty wrests his soul back from the clutches of the Minnesota Taxpayers League?

And as for the stem cell legislation, well, don't get me started. The University of Minnesota is conducting some of the most innovative stem cell research in the world right now. While it is true, as Pawlenty says, nothing in current law prevents the University from conducting stem cell research, or seeking funding for same from private sources, all I can say is that Tim Pawlenty is not a stupid man, and he knows as well as I do that state funding acts as seed money and multiplier, attracting several dollars of private funding for every dollar of public money.

Even more important, it will add to the momentum across the country to override the life-negating "pro-life" anti-stem cell research position taken by the Bush Administration. As a member of a family with a history of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other less-common afflictions for which stem cell research holds out at least the possibility of a cure, this is one veto threat I take very personally. Here, appealing to the base is, quite, literally, trading the "sanctity" of embryos — almost all destined to be destroyed in the normal course of things — for the lives and well-being of "post-born" Minnesotans. Partisanship's one thing, Tim. But now you're talking about my kith and kin — and the kith and kin of a lot of other residents of this state — being offered up on the altar of your ambitions to serve as running mate for John McCain's already-doomed 2008 Presidential campaign.

For once, sir, do the right thing — remind the base that you're the Governor of all Minnesotans and sign at least the stem cell bill when it lands on your desk.

• Increased investments in our K-12 schools with provisions to close the achievement gap
• Provides for voluntary All-day Every-Day Kindergarten
• Provides $125 million in property tax relief for our school districts
• Funds our states colleges and universities including mechanisms to limit tuition increases
• Comprehensive statewide health care reform including a plan to cover all kids with health insurance by the year 2011
• 3% cost-of-living increases in each of the next two years for our health care workers
• Once in a lifetime investments in our roads, bridges and transit systems
• $10 million for the Clean Water Legacy Act to target polluted waters

The worn out mantra of the minority party has been the sky is falling and Governor Veto will save the day. Personally, I prefer to take a more optimistic approach and focus on the positive outcomes these bills will deliver like comprehensive health care for our kids and property tax relief for our homeowners.

Once you get past the empty rhetoric of the minority, you'll notice the bulk of the funding bills have passed with broad, bipartisan support. The fact that the education investment bill passed with 119 votes is public recognition that we need to do more for quality education.

With about a month to go in the legislative session, negotiations with the Senate and Governor will now get serious. Thankfully we're all talking about the same priorities, and are well ahead of schedule.