Like many Minnesotans, Bluestem feels confounded by Governor Mark Dayton's veto threats over the bonding bill and the Senate version of the medical cannabis bill. But reading news accounts this morning, a workable path around the roadblocks suggests itself to us.
In Forum Communications Don Davis's report, LEGISLATURE: Dayton would veto bonding over fire sprinkler provision, we read:
Gov. Mark Dayton dropped a legislative bombshell Monday when he announced that he is willing to give up $846 million in public works projects around Minnesota if legislators insist on overturning a state requirement for fire sprinklers in larger new homes.
The rare veto threat came over a provision in a Senate public works bill that would forbid state officials from requiring fire sprinkler systems in homes larger than 4,500 square feet. The current building code requires sprinklers for the larger homes.
Sen. LeRoy Stumpf, D-Plummer, told members of his bonding committee last week that requiring sprinklers would drive up housing costs, and many well systems in rural areas could not provide enough water. . . .
On the Pioneer Press website, Christopher Snowbeck reports in Will medical marijuana supporters run out of time?:
Gov. Mark Dayton said Monday that he hopes the Legislature will send him a medical marijuana bill he can sign into law.
The final measure can be a compromise between the House and Senate versions, Dayton said, but he prefers the House version -- especially because the Senate bill would let patients have access to whole-leaf marijuana for use in vaporizers.
"It's just, to me, impossible to believe that somebody is going to buy 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana, and not smoke it or not sell it to someone else who will," Dayton said during a news conference at the Capitol.
These are certainly completely rational policy positions, but Bluestem sees a means to solve both dilemmas, freeing the Governor to sign both bills.
Here's the drill: just as Carly Melin grafted the "compromise" medical cannabis observational study on to a bill for K-12 educational technology, Bluestem suggests that, in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation and adjourning in time for Andrew Falk, Deb Kiel and Paul Torkelson to get their spring planting in, the legislature merge the bonding and medical cannabis bills.
Sure, Minnesotans find find it hard to master the zipper merge, but construction season is upon us, and our elected representatives in St. Paul can act now and provide leadership for the rest of us.
Here's the deal. The overwhelming majority of Senators who voted for whole plant cannabis, but only deliverable via vaping, can insist that both chambers insert a provision for retrofitting the homes, vehicles and outbuildings of patients receiving medical marijuana with sprinkler systems. Given the wonders of modern technology, the systems can be calibrated to flood a home the second anyone burns one. The mandatory sprinkler requirement for new McMansion will be retained, with one temporary geographic exemption.
Medical marijuana patients and homebuilders in Southwestern Minnesota will be exempt from the sprinkler mandate until the completion of the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System.
As a low-income Minnesota living in modest housing who enjoys good health while eschewing all hemp products, the editor of Bluestem will in no way benefit from this solution, and offer it solely to assist the Governor in negotiating his way out of this one.
Photo: Governor Mark Dayton, who worries that sick Minnesotans will go into micro-dealing and burn down rich folks houses. Photo by Don Davis.
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