At Session Daily, Mike Cook reports on a legislative preview arranged by Forum News Services in Gov. Dayton, legislative leaders lay out 2016 session plans:
Will this be the year the Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton agree on a large, long-term funding package to upgrade the state’s transportation system?
Will a comprehensive tax bill be agreed upon? How about a hundreds-of-millions of dollars capital investment bill? Unemployment assistance for laid-off Iron Range miners? Real ID compliance?
To get the work done, lawmakers and the governor have just under 11 weeks from the March 8 start date of the Legislative session to May 23, the day they must constitutionally adjourn for the biennium. At an often-combative preview, legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle and the governor struggled to express confidence Thursday that much agreement can be reached on key issues in a relatively short time span. The event was sponsored by Forum News Service.
Read the rest in Session Daily. At Minnesota Public Radio, Tim Pugmire reports in Dayton, leaders preview session hurdles ahead:
Deep, partisan disagreements remain on transportation funding and tax cuts. But they all want quick action on an extension of unemployment benefits for laid-off Iron Range workers.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, and House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said they plan to take up bills in the first week of session. But Daudt said he also wants to see some economic development for the area.
“We obviously, I think, all care about what’s going on on the Iron Range and want to make sure we’re helping those folks out,” Daudt said. “Not just the short-term with unemployment benefits, but long-term. I think we all know that what people want on the Iron Range isn’t just an unemployment check. They want a paycheck.”
Daudt also pledged quick House action on a bill to begin moving the state into compliance with the federal Real ID law. . . .
Read the rest at MPR. The Associated Press reports:
Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders are picking up old disagreements over transportation funding and tax cuts.
Top lawmakers from both parties and the Democratic governor met in a forum to discuss the upcoming legislative session near the Capitol on Thursday. The Legislature is set to resume unfinished work from last year when it returns on March 8.
Dayton and Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt clashed over how to fund a major road and bridge repair package. Republicans say the state should tap a $1.2 billion budget surplus, while Dayton and Democrats are pushing for a gas tax increase. Those disagreements kept an agreement out of reach last year.
And the Legislature won't have much time. Ongoing renovations at the Capitol have truncated the session to just 10 weeks.
At the Mankato Free Press, Trey Mewes reports in Lawmakers: Transportation key for Greater MN in upcoming session:
. . . While lawmakers agree transportation funding is a necessity, Republicans and Democrats differ on how best to fund it — Republicans want to set aside money from the state's general fund and other departments, while Democrats are pushing a gas tax as part of what lawmakers hope will be a comprehensive funding plan for the state's infrastructure for the next decade.
Dayton said he was pessimistic a transportation package could be put together if Republicans stuck to their position on shifting money from existing resources.
"There's no free lunch," he said. "It's going to come from somewhere. You can shift money from here to there, or whatever, but the question is to Minnesotans, 'Are you willing to pay, one way or the other, for what we need to get done, or are you just willing to live in a state where our highway infrastructure, roads and bridges continue to get worse?'"
House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said a transportation package is much more likely to succeed if both parties can pass legislation for areas they agree on, specifically funding for road and bridge maintenance and construction.
"We have the resources to pay for this," he said. "If we focus on what matters — roads and bridges — the funds are there."
At issue is whether lawmakers can agree on funding for at least $6 billion over the next 10 years, which the state estimates would be enough to maintain Minnesota's current transportation infrastructure.
In 2015, Republicans suggested allocating $7 billion toward transportation, while Dayton proposed a $11 billion package, which ran aground after lawmakers pushed back on the aforementioned gas tax.
Dayton suggested a potential cap on the gas tax could be set so Minnesotans wouldn't have to pay extra if gas returned to costing $3 or $4 per gallon.
Yet he urged lawmakers to act on more transportation funding, pointing out how projects can adversely affect businesses with few travel options like last year's Highway 14 detour in south-central Minnesota.
"You go to places like New Ulm, and businesses there, including trucking businesses, can't get onto Hwy 14 to get their products to market," he said. . . .
Fox 9 focuses on transportation in its coverage with Legislators bracing for battle over transportation spending in upcoming session.
Here's the video of the entire meeting with the press corps; it was jumpy at times while we watched it, but that may be our Greater Minnesota bandwidth choking--and be patient while it loads:
Photo: The five horsemen of Minnesota's coming legislative apocalypse, via MPR. We're being civil here.
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