How they voted

Renewable energy standard

What: Requires that by 2025, 25 percent of electricity generated in the state come from renewable sources. For Xcel, the requirement is 30 percent by 2020.

Status: Passed by Senate (63-3) and House (123-10), signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Sen. David Hann: voted against it

Rep. Maria Ruud: voted for it

Rep. Erik Paulsen: voted for it

 Gas tax increase

What: Both the Minnesota House and Senate voted to raise the gas tax by 10 cents.

Status: Passed by Senate (42-24) and House (83-46), could face a veto

Sen. David Hann: voted against it

Rep. Maria Ruud: voted for it

Rep. Erik Paulsen: missed vote, but has voted against it in past

 Smoking Ban

What: Both the Minnesota Senate and House passed an indoor smoking ban that includes all bars and restaurants. However the House version would allow establishments with separate smoking rooms to seek an exemption from local governing units.

Status: It passed the House (85-45) and Senate (41-24), but differing versions need to be worked out in conference committee.

Sen. David Hann: voted against it

Rep. Maria Ruud: voted for it

Rep. Paulsen: voted against it, but favors ban that does not allow any exemptions

“I think it’s certainly a good thing to recognize the need to try to address the special education funding.”

– Sen. David Hann (R-42), on education legislation

“It’s really a matter of are they going to compromise ahead of time or do they want to go through the exercise of getting a veto and then risk a special session.”

– Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-42B), on a number of measures Gov. Tim Pawlenty has threatened to veto

 “I prefer that there’s no exemptions. I actually think it’s more fair if we keep it just really strong.”

– Rep. Maria Ruud (R-42A) about the smoking ban

Bills are in flux as veto threats loom

By Leah Shaffer

This year’s Legislature has been producing bills at a steady clip, churning out legislation to fund healthcare, education and property tax relief. In the coming weeks, look for changes to some of that legislation: changes or vetoes.

Speaking about a number of spending bills tied to income tax hikes, Sen. David Hann (R-42) said he hopes that those in conference committees are working on alternative proposals that are more likely to pass by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“To me it’s just a question of whether there is simply time to do all that before this session comes to an end,” he said.

Rep. Maria Ruud (R-42A) noted in an interview Tuesday that there’s going to be some “really difficult days ahead.”

Part of that is, “We’re fighting for the things I think that are important for most Minnesotans and it’s really just coming to [what] the best way to go about that is.”

Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-42B) said that it’s really a matter of if leaders are going to compromise ahead of time, or if they want to go through the process of getting a veto and risk a special session.

“I think if that happens, we would end up going into special session, because there’s not going to be much time to start over in the process and get all the bills through again.”

Interestingly enough, Paulsen noted that in his new position outside of the majority party he’s still been able to get some of his provisions into legislation. He noted that his India Center proposal has gotten into the higher education bill, and his provisions for a Mandarin language bill are in the K-12 legislation.

“I’m actually excited about a lot of the provisions.”

“I’m able to work very bipartisanly with the authors and the chairs of these committees, but again, from a more global perspective, there just has to be movement on the spending numbers or it risks everything sort of falling apart at this point.”

Taxes

Included in the many bills that could face a veto threat are bills to increase the gas tax by 10 cents.

Hann noted that as the legislation stands, “I don’t think the governor’s veto would get overridden.”

If the conference committee comes back with something very modest, like a 5-cent tax increase only, then, there might be a number of Republicans who would go along with that, he said.

Hann, who voted against an increase said he doesn’t have a problem with trying to dedicate more money to transportation.

“But I do believe that we are generating sufficient revenue that we ought to be able to prioritize what we’re doing.”

Paulsen does not support a gas tax increase. Nonetheless, the gas tax could override a veto, if it’s a straight gas tax, and the other taxes in the bill are dropped, he said. Paulsen said he thought the transportation bill could be one of the final bills that could go through, though.

Regarding the gas tax bill, “I think there will be some changes to what passed,” noted Ruud, who voted for the increase.

“I think it’s pretty obvious to anybody who’s driving on our roads that we haven’t kept up with our transportation needs, either the condition that they’re in or the congestion. Clearly that does take some investment,” she said while noting that the gas tax hasn’t gone up in a while.

What Ruud, Paulsen and Hann align on is an opposition to both Senate and House Bills to increase the property tax rate on those with higher incomes.

Ruud voted against the House legislation because she had a concern that “the dollars are going to come from the people in our district.”

The other issue, is “I think the governor has been really clear on this one,” she said about his veto threat.

Along with hitting EP’s district disproportionately, “I wasn’t interested in passing something that I knew was going to be vetoed,” she said.

Paulsen warned, “If the democrats are banking on a tax increase to pass, it’s going to unravel the rest of the spending bills.”

“It’s really a nonstarter to think about raising the income tax when we’ve got a $2.2 billion dollar budget surplus, I mean that’s not going to happen,” he added.

He said, during the House’s long debate on the issue, he said he warned that, “This is going definitely lead to chasing people out of the state”

“I’ve had numerous contacts from constituents and business people that have said, if this passes I’m out of here.”

Smoking ban

Though Paulsen voted against adopting the smoking ban, he said he did vote down amendments to weaken the ban and voted for amendments to strengthen it. In other words, he wants the bill to be tough. The version that was ultimately voted on in the House includes a loophole that would allow bars to opt out of the ban. The Senate version would ban smoking in all bars and restaurants leaving no option of appeal to local governing units.

“If we’re going to have a smoking ban in the state, it should be all-encompassing,” Paulsen said.

Ruud was in agreement there.

“I prefer that there’s no exemptions. I actually think it’s more fair if we keep it just really strong.”

As to which version will prevail, she was not so sure.

Hann falls on the opposite side of the smoking issue. He voted against the Senate version.

On the House version’s modification to a total ban, he said, “I think that’s smart. I think that there are problems with an absolute ban.”

Education

Hann had a number of pros and cons to go with this year’s education bill. He noted that the emphasis in the Senate was to try to get some funding for special education.

“I think it’s certainly a good thing to recognize the need to try to address the special education funding.”

On the other hand, “We did virtually nothing to try to understand what the cost drivers are of the rising special education costs and to say what can we do to try to manage those costs in a more effective way.”

That is a big problem that needs to be addressed, he said.

This year there was a great interest in early childhood education funding.

“I liked a lot of what we tried to do,” he said referring to specifically targeted funds for families in need. “It was essentially a voucher style approach.”

One issue, though was, “I don’t think we did enough in our bill to try to put money on the formula.”

As it stands now, the House education bill calls for a 3 percent funding increase.

“I hope at the end of the day, what we’ll see is a more balanced approached to some of these things, that we see money on the formula, we see some things for special education, atleast from a funding perspective, and some early childhood things. I just wish we’d work a little harder about some of the policies that are underlying the funding,” said Hann.

Paulsen said that what was put into the education bill that he hopes remains are provisions addressing the higher labor costs suburban districts have to pay. Some language in the bill also allows districts in the higher percentile of local referendums, like the 95th percentile, “to continue to raise their referendum.”

“Eden Prairie’s not directly affected by that now, but they could be in the future.

“There’s some good balance I believe to help suburban districts in the K-12 bill.”

Environment

One issue that has been settled is the Renewable Energy Standard, which was signed by the governor. Ruud explained that much of the environmental initiatives, including her Global Warming Mitigation Act are tied to the Governor’s Next Generation Energy Initiative. The Global Warming Mitigation Act should get to be voted on by the end of this week, she said, “and I am optimistic that that will pass.”As to what the bill will accomplish, she said that the governor has a stakeholders group that was pulled together. The group has people from environmental groups, utilities, the Chamber of Commerce, a “wide cross section of individuals.” This group is being facilitated by a nationally recognized group called the Center for Climate Strategies.

“They go into states and they help them come up with a plan.”

“The governor has already started this process,” her bill would codify it into the law, she said.

Her bill would give the group direction and says when it is done meeting at the end of this year, it should come back with ideas for how to reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, the bill sets goals of reducing 2005 C02 levels 80 percent by 2050. Some details are still being worked out for another of the bill’s provisions that would require no increase gain in emissions from power plants.

“I’m confidant that we’re going to be able to come to an agreement and that we will pass something that the governor will sign.”

The Renewable Energy Standard, which has already been signed, sets the goal of having 25 percent of the electricity generated by 2025 come from renewable sources.

Hann was one of the few in the Senate to vote against the bill. He said, if people accept global warming as caused by human activity, “what we’re doing in this bill would have zero effect on the conditions that people suggest are contributing to global warming.”

“To me it has certainty that it will add cost” and complete lack of certainty that it would actually accomplish the things that people said they wanted to accomplish, he said.