The Minnesota Legislature completed its session Monday with fewer missed deadlines, a completed agreement on the budget and a few more pluses.
This Legislature reached a timely agreement on the session's major goal -- eliminating a $936 million deficit to balance the budget.
That accomplishment in itself would make the 2008 legislative session the best of the past decade.
In doing so, the Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty cut many state budgets 4 percent, adding some new revenue and tapping some the reserve funds. They collectively left the more serious budget challenge of the next two-year budget for the next Legislature.
Credit is due to House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher who helped broker a compromise between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, two men who don't exactly like each other.
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The other major accomplishment of the legislature was passage of the $6.6 billion transportation funding bill. The DFL-controlled Legislature with the assistance of six Republican House members completed a rare override of the governor's veto to pass the transportation bill. This bill starts Minnesota on a path of reinvestment in the state infrastructure, something that was badly needed.
Kelliher also played a significant role here in orchestrating the House override of Pawlenty's veto. The loser on this transportation issue was House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, who had guaranteed to uphold any override attempt of a Pawlenty veto. Seifert's House GOP Caucus then made things worse with an untruthful ad campaign blaming state Democrats for recent gas price jumps. As we said before, Minnesotans are smarter than that.
The Legislature started the session by quickly approving a proposed constitutional amendment on outdoor and arts funding. Now Minnesota will have the opportunity in November to vote yes or no to raise the sale tax taxe to fund outdoors and arts projects.
Two other critical issues were passage of a public works funding bill and a property tax package.
The public works bill will fund $823 million in building projects around the state, including capital improvements at Ridgewater, restoring Grass Lake, and funding wastewater infrastructure improvements, including in Willmar and Litchfield.
The property tax package contained a little bit for everyone. It included a limit on property tax increases that Pawlenty wanted plus increasing a property tax refund program and an additional $64 million for city and county funding.
Overall, the 2008 legislative session was successful, providing wins for Pawlenty and for the Legislature.
The downer is that tougher decisions await the 2009 Legislature.
