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OUR OPINION: 2007 session Report card time
Just like carefree students at the end of the school year, Minnesota lawmakers scattered in every direction after Monday's adjournment, having concluded their business for the year.
For both students and legislators, however, the joy of being released from the confines of their desk-bound duties are followed by report cards.
Here is how this newspaper graded the lawmakers on just a few of the subjects they took this year.
TRANSPORTATION - F.
Apologists can chalk it up to bad timing with the rise in gasoline prices, but the senators and representatives still should have shown more resolve and overridden Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a good transportation bill. While no one likes the idea of paying even more at the gas pumps the neglect that this state has shown to its transportation system will bear a high cost in terms of the state economy and safety.
Minnesota is barely keeping up with maintaining the roads it has already built. The Legislature's inaction (and its failure to capitalize on matching federal funds) means more gridlock will be in the cards for years to come.
The Legislature was only a few votes shy of overriding the veto and the high gasoline prices, no doubt, made some lawmakers skittish about approving a gas tax. Still, the gas tax is a user tax that costs more for those people who use the roads more. Raising the gas tax for the first time since 1988 would have been the right thing to do.
DEDICATED FUNDING FOR ARTS AND OUTDOORS - A/F.
The lawmakers deserve an A for not succumbing to the pressure to engage in bad fiscal policy that would tie the hands of future lawmakers for years. Policymakers can't run the state on automatic pilot with X percent going to education and X percent going to transportation. Decisions have to be made based on the economic conditions that exist at any given time. That's why we elect lawmakers.
The Legislature gets an F for failing to have the courage to fund legislation that would improve our waters and our hunting and fishing habitats. If these projects are as crucial as politicians say they are on the campaign trail they should be able to compete with other legislation in the budget process.
PUBLIC HEALTH - A.
The Legislature stepped up to the plate and did what needed to be done when it passed the smoking ban in public places. No longer will bar and restaurant employees who want to keep their jobs or children whose parents take them to smoking establishments be subjected to second-hand smoke.
The time had come for such a ban and we'll look back and wonder why it took us so long.
COMPLETING THEIR WORK IN TIME- A.
For the first budget cycle since 1999 lawmakers adjourned on time. That means no special session and no summer days spent in committee hearings.
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