In Browns Valley Republican Representative Jeff Backer's version of the 2016 session, Governor Mark Dayton killed the bonding bill, according to a Morris Sun Tribune story, Backer, McNamar tackle issues at forum:
Backer said Dayton also failed to support a bonding bill that the House passed and sent to the Senate. Dayton wanted light rail, Backer said.
McNamar said the bonding bill was submitted at the last minute by the House. "Blaming other people is not right," McNamar said. "You've got to get your bills done on time. It was time mismanagement."
Suzanne Engstrom notes in an October 30 letter to the editor of the Morris Sun Tribune:
To voters in House District 12A: in Morris on Oct. 19 your Republican representative stated that the $100 million mistake in the tax bill last spring was a "small" amount which Dayton should not have vetoed, and that Dayton vetoed the bipartisan bonding bill. Wrong on both counts. $100 million might be small to wealthy Republicans, but it isn't small to the rest of us.
Dayton did NOT veto the bonding bill. After weeks of continued Democrat cries to see the bonding bill, it was finally sent to the House shortly before midnight on closing night. It had a Southwest Light Rail amendment that the Republicans couldn't accept, so the majority adjourned the session early without a vote on the bill. If the bill had been presented in a timely manner, the SW-LRT problem could have been negotiated.
Vote to return Jay McNamar to the House so sessions can be finished without chaos the final night.
While the paper doesn't report that Backer directly said Dayton vetoed the bonding bill, that's suggested by Backer remark, while McNamar attributes the failure to pass the bonding to late drafting and last-minute dawdlng.
His version does seem closer to Briana Bierschbach's May 23, 2016 report in MinnPost, The cost of chaos: Legislative session ends after bonding-bill deal falls apart, minutes before deadline:
It was the blowup most people had been expecting for days.
Top leaders of the Minnesota Legislature were in and out of negotiations all weekend, painstakingly moving piece-by-piece to reach a deal to spend a $900 million budget surplus on tax cuts and things like broadband and education. An agreement for a long-term transportation funding bill and a large package of construction projects, known as the bonding bill, was harder to reach. But Sunday night, in the final hours before the deadline to pass legislation, things seemed to be coming together.
Democrats in control of the Senate and the Republican majority in the House had agreed to a $990 million bonding bill and a one-time infusion of cash to fund road and bridge projects, a move that would temporarily bridge an impasse over transportation funding. With less than 15 minutes to spare before midnight, the House passed the bonding bill on a 91-39 vote, sending it off to the Senate to do the same. But DFL senators were furious to learn the bill lacked funding for transit, so they quickly amended the proposal and sent it back to the House.
When word of the amendment started to spread across the chamber, House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin stood up and moved to adjourn the House, six minutes before midnight — removing any chance for the new version of the bill to pass.
And that was that.
After it was all over, both sides were at a loss as to what had even happened.
“Why they made a decision to go home … is a mystery to me, but they have killed the bonding bill,” Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk said on the Senate floor after the House adjourned.
Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt said he didn’t know exactly what the Senate did to the bill, but he feared senators had attached funding for Southwest Light Rail, which Republicans had opposed all session. . . .
The whole weekend brought back fresh memories of the 2015 legislative session, when major negotiations on the budget didn’t start until the final week of session, and even then moved slowly and took place behind closed doors. This year, the final 599-page budget bill was given to House members four hours before they were set to vote, while the bonding bill arrived at the House moments after they already started to debate the bill.
DFL House Minority Leader Paul Thissen was particularly outspoken about the process, repeatedly railing against House Republicans on the issue throughout the weekend.
“Here we are again, doing the exact same thing one year later, after doing nothing for 10 weeks, shutting out the public and cramming everything into a single day,” Thissen said. “Legislators are reading about what’s happening in bills on Twitter. Minnesotans hate it. They hate it and they should.” . . .
How Dayton caused Majority Leader Peppin to stand up and move to adjourn the House and thus kill the bonding bill remains a mystery.
But given that Backer and his supporters blame the buffer bill--for which he voted in 2015 and 2016--on Rep. Jean Wagenius--who did not author or vote for--perhaps Backer simply can't remember these things correctly.
Indeed, in his latest letter to the Alexandria Echo Press, Backer pretends that Governor Dayton pushed the buffer bill during DFL control of the legislature. However, after a Pheasant Summit in December 2014--following the Republican victory, Dayton released the outline of the buffer bill in January 2015. It's simply not legislation that came out of the 2013-2014 session.
Those in Minnesota House District 12A who want more confusion and do-nothing sessions in St. Paul should by all means vote for Jeff Backer. He'll continue to turn the facts upside down.
See related posts:
Jeff Backer gets a little factchecking after Coalition of Greater MN Cities sponsored forum
Backer backer blames Rep. Wagenius for buffer legislation she voted against 2 years running
Screengrab: The upside-down photo in the Sun Tribune's original online version of the forum article seems like a pretty good visual metaphor for Backer's upside down world.
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