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Health & Fitness

Budget "Laser" Shut Down by Sharp Right Turn in Legislature

Here we sit with about 10 days left before the legislative session is required to end, and we still do not have final budget bills.

I am certainly sensitive to the dilemma our legislature faces in dealing with our budget. It was encouraging to note at the start of the session that the new leadership in the House and Senate would be focusing "like a laser" on the budget problem.

But somewhere along the way a right turn detour took us off course.

Here we sit with about 10 days left before the legislative session is required to end, and we still do not have final budget bills.  But that hasn't deterred our legislators from pursuing other agendas.

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Most of our local legislators are participating in the "right turn."  Rep. Tara Mack of Apple Valley has focused on abortion legislation. Rep. Kurt Bills of Rosemount wants us back on the gold standard for currency (???). Doug Wardlow of Eagan spent a few days questioning the constitutionality of the governor requesting final bills, and produced a bill that would prohibit formation of health care exchanges required in the new health care bill—effectively allowing the federal government to form the Minnesota exchanges and forcing Minnesota to accept what they are given. Sen. Chris Gerlach, Apple Valley, spent a lot of his time working on ticket scalping. 

Beyond all that, the legislature has introduced no less than 27 potential Constitutional amendments, which if any of them pass both Houses, will be on the 2012 ballot.  Governor Dayton would have no say in the matter and cannot stop them from coming up for a vote.  And you thought political ads were saturating the airwaves last time...

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27 of them.  You can see the whole list on a post on my blog here

Through all of this, we still sit with no budget resolution. The only thing making progress is a Vikings Stadium, complete with state money and a sales tax in Ramsey County. 

That budget "laser" seems to have shut down completely. 

-Dave Mindeman

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