As others see it: A legislative stickup

Talk about it

Raise your hand if you oppose this legislative session ending only by weaving together a Vikings stadium bill, a statewide bonding bill, and a bill that gives tax breaks to businesses at the risk of future state budget deficits.

Now raise your other hand if you believe you will have little or no opportunity to examine the details of this legislative trifecta before your representatives, senators and governor act on them.

Both your hands are in the air, right? Welcome to (another) legislative stickup.

It’s precisely this kind of partisan governance that should inspire Minnesota voters to demand more moderate representation at the state level. Perhaps that will change come Nov. 6.

In the meantime, though, rank-and-file voters should not be surprised that the Republican-led Legislature and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton are locked in an end-of-session standoff contingent on the former getting its business tax breaks and the latter getting a boatload of public-works projects.

It’s simply — and sadly — the way the business-driven GOP and don’t-reform-government DFL parties have come to address and resolve their Capitol differences the past several sessions.

No matter which party controls which office, adjournment of a legislative session becomes contingent on not raising taxes and not reforming government. Achieving such goals becomes even easier when each party’s members march so easily in lockstep with what their leaders seek.

Of course, moderate, independent-thinking voters should be outraged, even insulted, by these end-of-session tactics. ...

Tags: opinion, minnesota, politics, legislature, editorials