MFL Commissioner's Blog: May 5, 2008 Archive

Okay MFL managers, we're going to shoot for two floor-a-paloozas today. There was no budget breakthrough this weekend, but at best we've got another two weeks left, so the Commish is going to do his best to get your teams as many chances for points as he can.

In the House, the subject of our floor-a-palooza will be HF3149, the omnibus tax bill carried by Rep. Ann Lenczewski.

In the Senate, the bill will be SF2211, carried by Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. This one isn't a sure thing to be heard today, but if this one has to be delayed until Wednesday or Thursday, we'll do it then. This could be considered one of the most important bills lawmakers deal with this year, especially if Minnesota loses a congressional seat after the 2010 census. I'm guessing your lawmakers will have a lot to say about both of these bills.

The first bill the House is taking up is the conference committee report on HF2553, the bridge collapse compensation bill, and some victims of that collapse are in the House chamber right now. The commish will see if he can get some reaction from them.

Rep. Winkler's 156 point behemoth, HF2553, the bridge relief compensation, has made it past its last House stop, getting the conference committee report approved. Next will be the Senate approval of the report, and then the governor's desk.

I spoke with a couple victims who had gathered in the gallery after the bill had passed. One, Karge Olsen, said that "It's a proud day for the Legislature, a proud day for the governor's office and a proud day for the victims."

Another, Jennifer Holmes, has been involved with the process, speaking at committee hearings for the legislation. Her husband Patrick died in the collapse.

"We're just very happy that they recoginized that we need help, and they're taking into consideration that some of us might need more help than just the tort $400,000," she said.

I asked if it bothered her that some lawmakers didn't support the bill.

"Everybody has their opinions, and we've been hearing the negatives all along, I think its good that that people question," but that most members recognized the need for the fund.

Most declined to comment, and I can't say I blame them, after nine months of questions about a painful subject that most probably want to move past as much as they can.

The House is just taking up HF3149, the subject of our floor-a-palooza, but the Senate has yet to touch the redistricting bill. Watch the House here, I'll link to the Senate and let you know when and if they take it up.

On most days, maybe because the DFL has such a large majority, or just because there are half as many lawmakers, the Senate ends their floor session earlier than the House. When they do, some usually wander over into the House to hobknob with their fellow lawmakers from the lower chamber. That happend today, and some were noisy enough that Rep. Ron Erhardt (R-Edina) had to lay the smack down.

He rose on a point of personal priviledge and asked if the chair could use the "secret slogan that rids this place of the senators so we can hear what we're doing."

Rep. Erhardt said he'd "get the file out that invokes the curse of the senator for the day." Curse or not, it worked, and he got those senators to pipe down.

Things are humming along pretty well for your floor-a-palooza, with almost two dozen lawmakers speaking up on the tax bill, and a pretty good mix too, with some, like Rep. Dean Simpson (R-Perham) and Rep. Robin Brown (DFL-Albert Lea) who rarely pipe up doing so.

The governor signed 10 bills today, including one to commemorate the end of the Korean War, the bovine TB bill, and HF3217, which makes prank calling the police or fire deparments and reporting an emergency when none exists a misdemeanor.

The Senate looks like it may have only recessed, so if they come back and take up that redistricting bill I promised you a floor-a-palooza on, we'll be handing out points for that too.