May 18, 2010 - Legislative Report #17

May 18, 2010

The average Minnesota taxpayer would have hoped in this anti incumbent political year that someone in St. Paul would have just done his or her job. Just think, four months to wrap up the business of government and move on. Sure, their would be painful fallout for Minnesota by getting done on time. But in spite of all the pressure to complete work, the legislature failed to get finished. We still ended up with a special session, albeit in one day - - no, excuse me - - apparently we had a two day special session. The first day started at 12:01 a.m., Monday, May 17, 2010 and ended about 15 minutes later. The second day of special session started at 7:30 a.m., Monday, May 17, 2010.

Several times over the last weekend of session I looked on line at the House live broadcast to observe the progress, only to discover elevator music and legislative members milling around the house floor. Late Sunday evening about two hours were spent listening to 20 plus retiring legislators giving their goodbyes to colleagues on the House floor. At that time I asked myself how they plan to cut any deals and finish before midnight. Leadership requires standing in the GAP of issues, controversy, challenges, and making sound decisions. Minnesota taxpayers failed to receive such leadership in the end of the 86th legislative session.

The two year 86th Legislative session is finally history, encompassing the introduction of 3,864 House bills of which 399 were passed, and only 32 received a veto. And 13,706 pages of documents were used to record the actions of the 86th Legislative House. Again I ask have you, the citizens of House district 50-A, have you had enough yet and are you going to take action? What is your liberty worth in 2010?  You have a clear choice for House 50-A, more of the same with Carolyn Laine or Constitutional representative leadership employing me.