Legislature's spring break arrives; Stormy summer may be ahead

(AP) Chuckles echoed through the Capitol last week over a bill that would grant state symbol status to the Tilt-A-Whirl amusement ride. Some observers snickered that the Minnesota invention would better qualify as the 2007 Legislature's official mascot.

Despite cranking up the pace lately, lawmakers seem to be spinning in place and setting up another dizzying race to the finish.

"Here we go round and round again. Where it stops nobody knows," said Republican Rep. Kurt Zellers, who grinned as he relayed the "government spinning out of control" and "Tilt-A-Tax" zingers he's heard in the halls.

Once again, the fault line is taxes: The DFL-led Legislature says it's time to raise them; Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty won't budge on the issue.

Legislators reached their spring break Monday. They and Pawlenty have seven weeks to complete their work and avoid an overtime session that spills into summer. The three previous state budgets required extra time - and agony - to pass.

Pre-session predictions of compromise and cooperation between the Legislature and governor held up early in the year. All sides coalesced around a law giving Minnesota a toughest-in-the-nation renewable energy standard.

But the good feeling began evaporating when the dollars-and-cents debate over Minnesota's budget picked up, and a familiar environment of confrontation has taken hold.

The Senate approved its $35 billion-plus version of the two-year budget before heading home. It's built on a foundation of income and businesses tax increases, totaling $1.5 billion over the next two years.

The House, which is moving at a slower clip, also bases its budget on the idea of collecting more money from top earners and corporations. Leaders of both bodies say taxing the most fortunate would pay for better schools and widespread property tax relief.

The House and Senate versions could take most of April to match up before Pawlenty weighs in.

While he refrained from signing a no-new-tax pledge during his 2006 campaign, Pawlenty remains adamantly opposed to state tax increases of any shape or size and has repeated the stance countless times since DFL tax plans emerged.

"They're choosing to ignore me, and there's a consequence when it comes to not getting their bills signed," Pawlenty said. "They're hopefully going to leave enough time to send a second batch of bills before the third week in May."

Legislative leaders accuse the Pawlenty administration of distorting the state's fiscal picture. What he calls a $2.1 billion surplus, they call a mirage given inflationary pressures on current programs. What he calls a 9.3 percent increase in recommended spending, they call an embellishment because some of the money would come as one-time performance bonuses.

"It seems the governor's doing a lot of taking and not much giving," said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich. "It seems like the answer we get from him all the time is no, and vetoes. He said he was going to be a different governor. He said he was going to work with Democrats. We have yet to see the cooperation, the give and the take."

But for now, the Legislature appears shy of the votes it would take to override Pawlenty vetoes. Republicans were heartened by the seven Democratic defections on the Senate's income tax proposal. Several DFLers also flaked off on House and Senate bills raising the gas tax, the spot where Pawlenty is most vulnerable. An override could prevail if the dime-a-gallon plan shrinks some, according to seasoned vote counters.

In 2005, a budget standoff spilled into July and led to a partial government shutdown. When campaigning last fall to regain House control for the first time since 1998, Democrats told voters they would undo the pervasive gridlock.

All 134 House seats on the ballot next year, so majority Democrats probably have the most to lose in this showdown. Some of the 19 seats the party gained in November could easily swing back to Republican hands if there's another sour ending.

State senators won't face voters again until 2010, the last year of the governor's term.

As lawmakers catch their breath for the final push, other Capitol players say it's too soon to tell what the end game is - or when the Legislature will reach its finish line.

The top lobbyist for the League of Minnesota Cities summed up the mood when city, county and school officials gathered for their lobby day at the Capitol last week.

"It feels like we're 90 percent of the way there," Gary Carlson told the local leaders, "but there's 90 percent of the work left to do."

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