Legislative session heading for showdown

The 2007 legislative session appears headed for a showdown between Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and the DFL-controlled Legislature over several issues important to working families, including taxes and transportation.

Lawmakers returned from the Easter recess to deal with a number of budget and policy measures, with only weeks remaining before the session must end on May 21.

The state Senate passed an education funding bill in late March and the House is considering legislation. Both exceed the funding proposed by Pawlenty in the budget he submitted in January.

Legislators also say the Pawlenty budget falls short in providing adequate funding for transportation and transit.

In late March, the state Senate approved $4.5 billion in spending on transportation, funded partly through a 10-cent increase in the gas tax. The bill is an attempt to meet the overall transportation need, “the Mount Everest of problems,” said its author, Senator Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing.

Legislators propose to fund the increases in education through a new top bracket in the individual income tax, with a rate of 9.7 percent. Individuals making more than $141,250 and couples with taxable incomes over $250,000 a year would pay the higher rate.

In statewide radio ads, Pawlenty attacked the gas and income tax proposals and vowed to veto any increases.

In the 2006 elections, the DFL took control of both houses of the Legislature when a number of new legislators won on a platform of increased school and transportation funding and lower property taxes. Union voters said their priorities included education, health care, transportation and jobs.

It appears the Legislature will defer any significant action on health care until the 2008 session, despite greater public pressure to increases access and affordability for more Minnesotans.

A number of labor-backed proposals are moving forward. As part of the economic development appropriations bill, the state Senate approved legislation to stop the misclassification of construction workers as “independent contractors,” a practice some employers have used to avoid providing workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation and other benefits.

The economic development appropriations bill also includes provisions to create a state Plumbing Board and Board of High Pressure Piping Systems – both backed by the Building Trades – and to require licensed health care facilities to adopt written “safe patient handling” policies to protect health care workers and patients.

In the House, lawmakers folded the Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights and the Dream Act into the overall omnibus education funding bill. The Packinghouse proposal spells out worker rights and provides for an ombudsman to help enforce labor and safety regulations in this dangerous industry. The Dream Act would enable students who are not citizens but who attended Minnesota high schools to enroll in state-funded colleges and universities at resident tuition rates.

It was unclear whether either measure would survive as the omnibus education bill moves through committees; Pawlenty has threaten to veto the legislation if it includes the Dream Act.

Also pending at the Capitol is an appropriation to fund wage increases for state workers. Both AFSCME and MAPE, representing some 20,000 state employees, are in contract negotiations with the Pawlenty administration. In addition, the unions are seeking restrictions on contracting out of state work. Measures to restrict outsourcing and privatization are included in both the House and Senate’s government finance omnibus bill.

Both houses passed legislation outlawing mandatory overtime for state-employed nurses (legislation protecting private sector nurses passed two years ago), but the bills differed and must be resolved in conference committee.

AFSCME is seeking wage protection for workers during the merger of the Hennepin County and Minneapolis Public Library systems. The union notes that such protections have been part of previous mergers involving courts, state universities, the Metropolitan Council and other agencies.

The state Senate passed a resolution urging Congress to approve the Employee Free Choice Act, making it easier for workers to organize, but the House has yet to take a final vote on the measure.

Legislation that would have aided St. Paul in preserving manufacturing jobs at the Ford plant will get a hearing Thursday in the state Senate. The bill would require Ford to maintain all of the facility’s equipment – including the hydroelectric plant – in operating condition until another manufacturer takes over.

Low-income workers, who received a boost in the minimum wage under legislation passed two years ago, may receive more good news by the end of this session. A measure to annually index the minimum wage to inflation – making increases in the wage automatic – awaits action on the floor of both the House and Senate.