What will June hold for us?

"One of my ex-patriot friends keeps telling me not to bother - the state is lost. More and more, I am starting to think he might be right."

In less than 24 hours, my second most favorite month will be upon us. Second? Why not first? It is a close call in my book, but May usually takes the trophy for first place. And May was a stellar month for weather (again). Not so much for Minnesota politics, but more on that soon. May was a time of planting, grilling, being a conventioneer, making new friends and visiting with some old ones. 

Okay - so there is a fly in the ointment. The legislative session. Ten weeks of work and not a heck of a lot to show for it. In fact, some of both sides of the fence are thinking it might have been a classic fail. And the Governor sure is not happy about it. Many of his pet rocks were left unattended to. So now he has a tough choice. Call a special session (as only he can do it), or try and let the Republicans "twist in the wind" before the election. 

I am starting to think these blitzkrieg legislative sessions are antithetical to our single subject rule. We end up every session at 5 minutes to midnight with a bill so convoluted, so full of garbage, few are happy with it. PLUS (and this is a big one), omnibus bills violate our state constitution. Promises from the last session on what to take care of first in the following session are as flimsy as tissue paper. Name calling, arguing, posturing - you get the picture.

In the closing frantic moments, thirty some million of tax relief for smokers got into the tax bill. Not the retired veterans exclusion however - I guess that is somewhere in the spending bill. Many on the DFL are madder than hornets that this highly targeted DFL tax bill ended up with a plus up for those "selfish smokers". And somehow, the Republicans are being blamed for it. In fact, many on the Left want the Governor to veto the tax bill because of it. Me? I want him to veto the bill because the Social Security fix is not included.

There is no doubt in my former military mind that we will get a special session in early June. And ready for this whopper? I also predict the Republicans will get round heels and authorize the $135M for SWLRT. Why? The Governor will not allow the bonding bill to go forward unless that is included. AND, there are way, way too many projects state wide which are in the "ready to go" condition. Anoka Country all by itself, has a bunch of critical projects. 

Now I am not a politician. Never held any office. But I do understand the basic constructs of negotiation. At the very start of the process, the Governor should have told the Speaker the SWLRT was his "must have". The Speaker could have then have responded by saying that the Social Security fix was his "must have". Now because we seem to have lost all leverage, we are likely to get the SWLRT with NO Social Security fix. The special session will just be the last chapter in a very sad legislative book this year.

So Governor, call the session. Get it over with. Republicans, come home, lick your wounds, and get ready to face a very angry electorate. One of my ex-patriot friends keeps telling me not to bother fighting - the state is lost. More and more, I am starting to think he might be right.