The Minnesota Legislature so far has done well in the basic subjects, but has been faltering a bit when things get complex.

A bonding bill has been passed by both houses and they are not far apart. With any luck, there will be a low-acrimony, high productivity debate and swift passage to approve a bill that allocates a lot of necessary funding for repairs and maintenance of state-owned infrastructure. The bill also funds some necessary projects that have statewide impact such as the science and engineering building at Minnesota State University and some unnecessary projects such as the Duluth convention center.

Legislators or Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has line item veto power, should trim the fat to keep the state’s credit rating reasonable with around $900 million in new borrowing.



Eminent domain

The eminent domain bill was a no brainer for the Legislature given the overwhelming media exposure that portrayed the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year in the Kelo case as oppressive government with its foot on the throat of the little guy. Most politicians are salivating on an issue like this. They all agree, there will be no opposition in the campaign on this issue and they can all claim to be for the little guy. Not surprisingly they passed a bill that makes it tougher for said oppressive government to take private land in eminent domain proceedings and give it to private real estate developers.

If they fumble the ball on this issue, they deserve to be “unelected.”



Stadiums? Gopher it

Finally, the Legislature acted on the Gopher stadium. The House overwhelmingly passed the Gopher-football-campus-again bill, correcting the errors of predecessors who put a college football team in a doomed, or domed, stadium off campus. Talk about multiple bad decisions.

The Senate and House also should look at a Twins stadium, but it would be nice to get the state or citizens as stockholders.

Then, help Zygi Wilf spend $1 billion. Give him something this year, with some contingency promise for the future. He’s a smart Jersey businessman; he’ll take what he can get and be thankful for a first year effort. Finish the deal next year.



More sales tax or less environment?

The Senate has approved a bill to increase the Minnesota sales tax to 6.875 from 6.5 percent to guarantee funding for environmental programs, conservation, the arts and even public radio.

The House has proposed the same sales tax rate, but designated a certain amount to environmental, following a no new taxes mantra. And please don’t ask the House to fund public radio while it’s in Republican control. It’s a futile effort.

Guaranteeing environmental funding to keep things clean for future generations, unfortunately, seems to be the tonic we need to protect Minnesota’s exceedingly beautiful environment. We have 10,000 lakes to protect and that’s why our taxes are higher than South Dakota. A “forced spending bill” also shows we have no confidence in ourselves to “vote” to preserve the future for our kids and keep Minnesota’s pristine environment at least at the level of reasonably clean.

It’s depressing, someone at the Legislature doesn’t just stand up and say, “We’re not going to put up with cuts in environmental spending when we’re polluting more and more every year.” Where is Willard Munger when you need him?

It’s also disconcerting that we seem to be asking citizens if they’d like to choose between clean water and lower taxes.



Gay marriage

On the complex subjects like gay marriage, the Legislature is spending entirely too much time on frivolous parliamentary procedures. Consider the grade a D, bordering on F. The gay marriage amendment can’t stand on its own through the committee process in the Senate. Those are the rules, and those have been the rules for decades. If the opponents of gay taxpayers, want to deny them rights everyone else has, they should at least have to go through the committee process.

If you don’t like the people on the Senate Judiciary Committee, work to defeat them in the good ol’ process called an election. Don’t spend time creating dozens of amendment bills with one little word changed so they can “technically” be more viable. Sounds like a DeLay tactic.

Sen. Michele Bachmann’s continued attempts to subvert the rules and corrupt the process takes valuable time from a Legislature that has problems to solve that affect more than a small minority of the people who can’t consider that biology may make some people different than them.



Unsolicited advice

So, Minnesota legislator, take this advice, unsolicited as it is, for what it’s worth.

Ask yourselves when confronted with a difficult issue: What would average Minnesotans do?