If you haven't read the Capitol Letter before--welcome. It's designed to be a quick overview of some of the big news out of the Capitol. When possible I'll also provide links to longer stories so you can check them out at your leisure. So let's get to it...

Gov. Pawlenty isn't scheduled to release his budget until next week, but already a prominent DFLer in the Senate is pushing back. Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, is staking a claim for a $226 million surplus in the fund that pays for MinnesotaCare--the state subsidized health insurance program for the working poor. MPR's Laura McCallum had the story:

Minnesota faces a projected $700 million deficit in the next two-year budget cycle. At the same time, the fund that pays for MinnesotaCare is projected to have a $226 million surplus. Money in that health care access fund comes from a tax on doctors, hospitals and clinics. Berglin wants to use some of that surplus to pay for her bill, which will cost an estimated $69 million.

"That is what the money is meant for; it's meant to serve the people in the program. We don't need to be rationing services like this, we have the money and we should make sure that we provide the services," Berglin says.

Republican leaders want to use the surplus in the health care access fund to help balance the overall state budget. The fastest growing area of the state budget is health care. State Human Services Commissioner Kevin Goodno says if the surplus goes back into the state's general fund, it would pay for other health care programs.

"The money isn't being taken out of the health care access fund to solve road problems; it's being taken out of the health care access fund to solve health care cost problems. And so it is being spent on health care," he says.

That's not even the biggest debate coming in the health care budget. That's likely to be over the general assistance medical care, a program that provides health care to single adults with no dependents. Stay tuned for that.

As temperatures head into the double digits below zero, Attorney General Mike Hatch is continuing his feud with Centerpoint Energy. MPR's Michael Khoo had this item:

Hatch says Minneapolis-based CenterPoint Energy/Minnegasco has refused to reconnect delinquent customers despite state laws that protect families during during winter.

Hatch said customers who have offered to work out a payment schedule with the company have been inappropriately refused -- and that CenterPoint has not alerted customers to their rights under state law.

"The actions of Minnegasco in refusing to tell these people about their right of appeal, about their right to negotiate and instead try to extract a set amont of money or extract all of the money at the first call is inhumane," he said.

A CenterPoint/Minnegasco spokesman said the company includes flyers in its bills that detail customers' rights. CenterPoint spokesman Tracy Bridge said the company has done all it can to alert customers to their rights.

"Each September we send a bill insert to all of our customers providing them clearly with what their cold-weather-rule rights are. That includes customers who have been disconnected. So, the assertion that we are not providing customers with what their rights are under the cold weather rule is incorrect."

The Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to talk about the issue Thursday. In the newspapers, the Texas Hold'em bill is getting some attention. Mark Brunswick had this in the Star Tribune:

Sen. Dave Kleis, a Republican, said state law needs to be clarified to make sure that tournaments of Texas Hold'em are regarded the same as games such as cribbage, bridge, euchre and 500.

Kleis' proposal comes in the wake of a raid last summer at a St. Cloud bowling alley that had been sponsoring Texas Hold'em tournaments for about six months. The owner of Granite Bowl had been assured by several lawyers that the tournaments were legal as long as there were no financial benefits to the sponsor and the prizes did not exceed $200.

Nevertheless, the state's Department of Public Safety and local police conducted a raid on the bowling alley during a tournament, shutting it down, confiscating cards and chips and detaining the players for more than two hours.

"It's a waste of our state's resources when we actually go after an establishment for having a tournament where no betting was going on," Kleis said at a Capitol news conference. "It's not government's role to outlaw everything."

Yeehaw! How dare they call it a do-nothing Legislature. Stay warm, good luck, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.