Watching the Legislature
So you don't have to...
We are quickly coming up on to the end of the session. Right now the House is debating on whether or not to accept the Conference Committee report on the Omnibus E-12 Spending Bill (HF 6). A couple of points that were made so far. First is that the Outstate Legislators are (AGAIN) complaining that they are being left out of the funding process. As you recall, this charge has been made during debate on a couple of the Omnibus Spending bills. Rep. Garafalo mentioned that this bill will end up being yet another PROPERTY TAX INCREASE for those cities who were not blessed enough to get funding from the state. Rep. Buesgens pointed out that the Conference Committee did not meet during the light of day where the concerned citizens could watch. No, the Conference Committee meeting was called to meet at 10pm on the Sunday night before the end of the session. Rep. Buesgens also read from a Star Tribune article that quoted the Chairwoman of the House Education Committee saying that the DFL was going to use this vote as fodder for the election this fall! Talk about playing politics with our childrens future!
Rep. Seifert (the author of the motion) has withdrawn the motion to send the bill back to committee which means that the minorities points were made so they are going to debate the bill. Or not....Rep Olson (R-Big Lake) re-moved to send the bill back to Conference Committee. He questioned why Seifert withdrew his motion. Rep. Seifert said that it was because he did not want to be charged with "filibustering" the bill.
Rep. Sertich rose to request a recess to the call of the chair with no time for return. The motion was passed. Rep. Sertich said that there was some important business that needed to be taken care of. I'm not sure what is going on, but I will keep you posted.
Curious.....now I do not know this to be a fact...but it sounds like the Governor may have had something to do with this recess. You see Governor Pawlenty does not like this bill...because of what it does to Q-Comp. Basically what this bill does (if I understand the debate correctly) is it guts Q-Comp going forward. Any school district who did not file an intent to adopt Q-Comp (like ISD 719 in Prior Lake/Savage) will only get a one time payment of $51.00 per pupil. However, those who did just squeek in (like Ed Chair Greiling's Roseville district did) they will not only get the $51.00 one time payment, they will get an additional $200 something (I have to go back and listen to the archives to get the correct figure) per pupil in annual funding! Oh and apparently not everyone knew about the March 31 Q-Comp deadline? Again, I have to listen to the House archives as that was something that was mentioned as almost a throw away line. As certain Democrat Exposers would say....Developing!
The House is still in recess as of 1:45pm with no expected time to return. I was told that both the Democrats and Republicans adjourned to caucus and that they would probably learn more about the reason for the sudden adjourning in caucus. One of the rumors (and I do have to stress that this is a rumor at this juncture) is that the Governor will pull his support from the renewed Central Corridor funding provision if this bill passes the House!
3:22 and they still have not reconvened.
We are quickly coming up on to the end of the session. Right now the House is debating on whether or not to accept the Conference Committee report on the Omnibus E-12 Spending Bill (HF 6). A couple of points that were made so far. First is that the Outstate Legislators are (AGAIN) complaining that they are being left out of the funding process. As you recall, this charge has been made during debate on a couple of the Omnibus Spending bills. Rep. Garafalo mentioned that this bill will end up being yet another PROPERTY TAX INCREASE for those cities who were not blessed enough to get funding from the state. Rep. Buesgens pointed out that the Conference Committee did not meet during the light of day where the concerned citizens could watch. No, the Conference Committee meeting was called to meet at 10pm on the Sunday night before the end of the session. Rep. Buesgens also read from a Star Tribune article that quoted the Chairwoman of the House Education Committee saying that the DFL was going to use this vote as fodder for the election this fall! Talk about playing politics with our childrens future!
Rep. Seifert (the author of the motion) has withdrawn the motion to send the bill back to committee which means that the minorities points were made so they are going to debate the bill. Or not....Rep Olson (R-Big Lake) re-moved to send the bill back to Conference Committee. He questioned why Seifert withdrew his motion. Rep. Seifert said that it was because he did not want to be charged with "filibustering" the bill.
Rep. Sertich rose to request a recess to the call of the chair with no time for return. The motion was passed. Rep. Sertich said that there was some important business that needed to be taken care of. I'm not sure what is going on, but I will keep you posted.
Curious.....now I do not know this to be a fact...but it sounds like the Governor may have had something to do with this recess. You see Governor Pawlenty does not like this bill...because of what it does to Q-Comp. Basically what this bill does (if I understand the debate correctly) is it guts Q-Comp going forward. Any school district who did not file an intent to adopt Q-Comp (like ISD 719 in Prior Lake/Savage) will only get a one time payment of $51.00 per pupil. However, those who did just squeek in (like Ed Chair Greiling's Roseville district did) they will not only get the $51.00 one time payment, they will get an additional $200 something (I have to go back and listen to the archives to get the correct figure) per pupil in annual funding! Oh and apparently not everyone knew about the March 31 Q-Comp deadline? Again, I have to listen to the House archives as that was something that was mentioned as almost a throw away line. As certain Democrat Exposers would say....Developing!
The House is still in recess as of 1:45pm with no expected time to return. I was told that both the Democrats and Republicans adjourned to caucus and that they would probably learn more about the reason for the sudden adjourning in caucus. One of the rumors (and I do have to stress that this is a rumor at this juncture) is that the Governor will pull his support from the renewed Central Corridor funding provision if this bill passes the House!
3:22 and they still have not reconvened.
Labels: MN Legislature
posted by The Lady Logician at
11:51 AM
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