NOTE: The bill Carlson authored was intended to repeal a number of mandates required of local government. There's still a stand-alone bill to repeal PEA in the Senate, authored by Michael Jungbauer. Steve Drazkowski is the House author of both companion bills.
Via MinnPost, the Bemidji Pioneer reports in Carlson pulls pay equity bill:
A bill which would abolish pay equity for local governments has been pulled by its author, Sen. John Carlson, R-Bemidji.
“That bill’s been pulled and it won’t see the light of day,” Carlson said Saturday morning to an Education Minnesota eggs and issues breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. It brought about 50 teachers from five school districts.
He apologized to the teachers for authoring the bill, and said his intent wasn’t to denigrate women’s effort to seek equal pay.
Although the article was published on Sunday, February 27, SF 0159 still remains listed by the state legislature as a bill submitted to the Senate, with Carlson as the bill's author, and there has not yet been a motion to return the bill to its author (aka "pull") according to the Journal of the Senate.
The Pioneer reports :
“So I author the bill, put it in the hopper, and the next thing I know, all hell breaks loose,” he added. “And I deserve it for being naïve. Quite honestly, I deserve that. I did it with good intentions.”
He did not say if he would reintroduce the bill without the pay equity provision.
“Hopefully I learned my lesson,” Carlson said. “To all of you, I apologize about that pay equity thing.”
Thus, while Carlson is feeling bad, he isn't feeling particularly speedy about the removal of the bill.
Presumably, a motion will be offered when the Senate meets tomorrow (March 3) to return the bill to its author (the term in parliamentary procedure lingo for the popular understanding of 'pulling" a bill).
Carlson claimed a newcomer's victim status:
Saturday he called the bill and its ramifications “really stupid” and alleged that he may have been naïve about authoring it.
“We hit this head on, and (the Pioneer) called me out and I called (the Pioneer) out, and then we had it out in the paper and that’s fine,” Carlson, a freshman, said.
“”When you’re new in the Legislature, the learning curve is unbelievably steep and we honestly don’t know what we don’t know,” he told the teachers.
Will Steve Drazkowski, author of the companion bill in the House, relent?
Somehow, that seems unlikely, despite the public criticism of the measure. After all, not only has Draz put the repeal in the larger bill addressing state mandates on local government, he's introduced it as a stand-alone measure.
If the House bill isn't returned to Draz, its author, and Carlson (or someone else) reintroduces the senate version without the divisive repeal of pay equity in it--and that hypothetical bill passes, as well as the House version, watch for what emerges from conference committee. Just saying.
Photos: Real Republicans of genius in the Minnesota State Legislature. Senator John Crlson (above); Rep. Steve Drazkowaki (below).
The Gillette Torvik blog comments on the unusual use of the word "author" given that the senator didn't know what the bill actually did.
http://gillette-torvik.blogspot.com/2011/03/understatement-of-year-so-far.html
Posted by: Mike | Mar 02, 2011 at 04:36 PM