What to expect from the 2015 legislative session
The 2015 Minnesota legislative session opened Tuesday. The Democrats control the Senate. Republicans control the House. We rounded up three political reporters to discuss what we'll see this legislative session.
What are the top issues you hope to see addressed by the legislature? Leave your comments below.
More about the 2015 session:
• First bills illustrate political divide in St. Paul
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In the House, the first bills introduced include a transportation package that doesn't include tax increases and changes to the state's implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, the Senate announced six bills, including legislation that covers tuition for students going to the state's community or technical colleges and more money for early childhood education. None of the measures have a price tag attached yet. (MPR News)
• The biggest issue for lawmakers at the Minnesota Capitol so far: the Capitol
The $273 million, three-plus year project recently entered into a particularly messy and inconvenient phase. Two-thirds of the building will now be shut off from the public for the first time ever, including the historic rotunda.
The problem is so big, that legislators like Bakk aren't completely dismissing an idea that would be unprecedented in Minnesota politics: finishing all legislative work for the next biennium in just one year, meaning there would be no 2016 session. (Minnpost)
• Lawmakers may consider one-year session, taking 2016 off
(Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie) said it was routine for the Legislature to meet only once every two years before the 1970s, when lawmakers alternated between a short session during bonding years, and long sessions during budget years.
"I think what's happened in the last several years is those distinctions have blurred quite a lot. We seem to be ending up doing bonding bills on budget years and tend to do more than just bonding on the non-budget years," Hann said. "I think it's possible to get done the things we need to get done without having a second year, and under the circumstances with the renovation, it might make sense to do that."(Star Tribune)