State lawmakers are back in Saint Paul after the Easter/Passover break and now begin the push to wrap up their work by the May 20th deadline. Carleton College analyst Steven Schier says Governor Mark Dayton has “a fair amount of leverage” the rest of the legislative session: “He’s not running for re-election, so he has no electoral skin in the game… and… the Republicans I think feel a real need to end the session.” That’s because it’s an election year. Among the remaining issues: a bonding bill, guns, education funding, and matching up Minnesota’s tax code with the major federal changes that President Trump pushed through Congress.
Schier says background checks or other explicit gun control legislation is going nowhere with the Republican legislature. He says, “The way out for both parties to claim credit on what is now — in the short term at least — a very hot issue, is to increase funding for school security — and I think you can bet a fair amount of money that that’s going to happen.”
Schier says the issue that could well consume the rest of the legislative session is what’s termed “tax conformity” — lining up Minnesota’s tax code with major changes President Trump pushed through Congress. Governor Dayton and Republicans have major differences on how to do that.
Schier says there’s a 50-50 chance of extra innings. “The main reason we would go to a special session is because of all the political and technical difficulties of ensuring tax compliance with the new federal tax law,” he says.
Much more in this interview with MNN’s Bill Werner: