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Lawmakers: It's time to bond STATE LEGISLATURE Associate Editor It was back to the state Capitol for central and northern Minnesota lawmakers Wednesday as the Minnesota Legislature convened in St. Paul for a bonding session.
"Intense and short and there's nothing wrong with that," Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker, said of the session that's scheduled to adjourn May 22.
Bonding for infrastructure projects of regional or statewide importance is the session's top priority in the minds of most area legislators.
"I think the bonding is the first priority to get done," Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, said Wednesday. "We've got good local projects. We've also got good news (Tuesday) with the (budget) forecast. ... So that forecast gives us a higher amount we can bond."
Ruud signed on to co-author the governor's bonding proposal. The state economic forecast released this week predicts an $88 million surplus in the state treasury. Ruud said that translates into the possibility of the Legislature approving $990 million in general obligation bonds instead of $965 million.
Rep. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, said he'll seek $5.5 million to establish a treatment facility at the Brainerd Regional Human Services Center for women methamphetamine users who are pregnant or who have young children.
"We've got the facility there right now," Gazelka said, and the measure has received backing from county boards in Aitkin, Crow Wing and Cass counties.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty's transportation plan calls for improvements to Highway 371 near Nisswa, Gazelka said, and that project eventually should help reduce traffic congestion.
Gazelka will introduce legislation that calls for $1.1 million to create the Cuyuna Lakes Trail. The money would be used for acquisition and development of the trail between the Paul Bunyan State Trail and Aitkin.
Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, identified bonding projects in his district, including $400,000 that would be met with matching local money for improvements to the zoo in Little Falls. Other projects he said he would call for included $125,000 for a park-and-ride parking lot at the Soo Line Trail south of Little Falls; $175,000 for the state share of a warming house along that same recreational trail near Bowlus; $1 million for follow-up phases for the project connecting the city of Garrison with a nearby wastewater treatment plant; $500,000 in planning and design money for a meth treatment facility at the Brainerd Regional Human Services Center; and $500,000 for planning and design money for a nursing home for veterans on the same site.
In addition Koering said there are smaller constituent service bills he'll be working on this session.
Howes said he'll seek a hospital moratorium exemption for the Ah-Gwah-Ching site near Walker because the Benedictine health system has expressed interest in establishing a long-term care facility of 50 or 100 beds at that site. Eventually, Howes said the facility could evolve into a clinic or a hospital. He said residents of Longville are 55 miles from a hospital. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., is working to help the Ah-Gwah-Ching site qualify for federal funding even though federal rules maintain it's 2.5 miles too close to the Park Rapids hospital, Howes said.
"This is when government needs to take a deep breath ... and say, 'OK, you can break this rule one time,'" Howes said.
The Walker lawmaker also would like to see property tax relief.
"The whole picture of property taxes - it's one of those we struggle with year in and year out," Howes said. "Obviously, local governments need money. I'd like to do something but I don't have the magic answer."
Consideration of the Defense of Marriage Act, which Howes supports, doesn't have to prevent the state's other work from getting done, he said. The measure has passed in the House and should only take three or four hours of debate in the Senate. He doesn't see the effort to change the state's constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman as a waste of time.
"Let the people vote it up or down, then we're done with it," he said.
Ruud also supports the Defense of Marriage Act.
"I'm hoping people can do it in a sensible and kind manner," she said.
Gazelka said there has been pressure from church leadership to pass the Defense of Marriage Act, which he has supported. The change in the state's constitution, he said, would make it less likely that courts would be allowed to alter the traditional definition of marriage.
Prospects for a new Twins stadium emerging from this session are slim, Howes said.
"I don't see a Twins stadium coming out of tax committee," he said, particularly if there's no provision for a Hennepin County referendum. "Magic dust is really running out down here."
Howes wants the Legislature to spend at least $40 million from the general fund to get started on a clean water program. This project would help identify and clean impaired lakes, he said.
Ruud also listed clean water as a priority and favors the 3/16th measure that would dedicate 3/16th of 1 percent of the sales tax to conservation purposes.
"We have got more lakes and water on the impaired list," she said. "I think it's vitally important. Tourism is a $9 billion industry in this state."
She also supports Pawlenty's reform of the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources, which, she said, would establish citizen overview of the expenditure of lottery money and take politics out of the process.
Gazelka said a joint effort by Brainerd, Baxter and Nisswa to seek authorization for a voter-backed local sales tax option faces better prospects in the House this year, after failing in 2005. He plans to arrange a meeting between representatives of the three cities with the House speaker.
"I think there's a good chance it will happen because both Brainerd and Baxter are on board," he said.
Koering said the local-option sales tax bill was supported last year in the Senate and he didn't see any problems this year in the Senate.
Ruud and Gazelka each listed restrictions on eminent domain as a priority this session.
"We need to make sure it's used for public good and not private development," she said.
Koering said he'll work on legislation aimed at making eligibility for MnCare a little easier for poor people so there are fewer Minnesotans without health care.
He said he'll introduce legislation to restrict hate groups from protesting at the funeral of military personnel or any emergency personnel. His legislation, he said, would allow them to protest but keep them 1,000 feet away from the funeral.
"They don't have the common sense to know this is the right thing to do," Koering said. "I'm going to move very rapidly and quickly on that."
Lawmakers expressed confidence the Legislature could adjourn by its May 22 deadline.
"I think we'll finish on time," Howes said. "We might not get everything done."
Gazelka said the fact that all lawmakers face re-election could mean the legislators will adjourn on time. Ruud also was hopeful of adjournment by late May, and said some observers have even predicted they'll finish early.
"I'm very optimistic that we can get the work done on time," Koering said.
MIKE O'ROURKE can be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
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