3. Omnibus Bonding Bill
HF 2959. Sen. Langseth; Rep. Dorman. This year’s bonding bill is just
under $1 billion in spending ($999.98 million) although the state treasury
has a $1 billion surplus. Why bond when there is a surplus? LEA disagrees
with the size of the bonding bill and with large expenditures that
are not state responsibilities. Examples include millions of dollars for: the
Northstar commuter rail line, various zoo projects, a community center in
Minneapolis, the Shubert Theater, the Ordway, development of an Itasca
County steel mill and bioscience grants. It passed in the Senate 60-6 and in
the House 111-21. LEA favored a NO vote.

4. Eminent Domain
SF 2750. Sen. Bakk, Rep. Johnson, J. Eminent Domain has been abused
in Minnesota as a form of legalized taking of property by the collusion
of developers and city planners in violation of the protection of property
rights of the owners. The Supreme Court decision (Kelo v. New London) left
this issue to the states and has led to a public demand that the Legislature
pass a law restricting the use of eminent domain, which the Bakk-Johnson
Bill does.
Private property rights are the foundation of liberty and true economic
development. The use of eminent domain, except for a public purpose, is
a flagrant violation of the intent of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
which in Jefferson’s words, are the rights the people have “against” the government.
This bill passed in the Senate 56-9. LEA favored a YES vote there.`
For the House, LEA chose to score the vote on the stricter amendment
offered by Rep. Krinkie that would have specifically forbidden taking land
for “economic development” or “enhancing tax revenues.” LEA favored a
YES vote on this amendment. That vote failed in the House 58-76, but the
bill without the amendment passed decisively.

5. Bailout of the Minneapolis Teachers’ Retirement Fund
SF 1057, HF 1120. Sen. Pogemiller, Rep. Ozment. Due to mismanagement
the Minneapolis Teachers’ Retirement Fund Association (MTRFA)
has been deeply in debt. This bill merged the MTRFA with the Minnesota
Teachers Retirement Association (MTRA), thereby transferring the
MTRFA’s large debt into the state fund. School districts will be assessed a
0.5 percent increase starting July 1st to pay off the large debt. This forces
taxpayers around the state to pay for the debt incurred by the mismanaged
Minneapolis fund. Furthermore, there are no incentives to improve the
practices that led to the large debt and held no one responsible. It passed in
the Senate 37-26 and in the House 95-34. LEA favored a NO vote.

7. Twins Baseball Stadium
SF 2297, HF 2480. Sen. Kelley, Rep. Finstad. Unable or unwilling to resist
years of endless lobbying, the legislature capitulated and subsidized a private,
professional sports team. Legislators found it appealing to give away
other people’s money under the guise that it was an economic benefit to
the community. This was done despite the major studies that show there
is no economic benefit to cities that have pro sports teams. While citizens
have been assured that this enterprise will not leave Minnesota, there
are no guarantees. Yet taxpayers are subsidizing millionaires and private
enterprises.
The legislature further disgraced itself by exempting this bill from the
state law’s requirement to allow local citizens to vote on tax increases. This
burdens the citizens of Hennepin County with a tax despite assurances
that keeping the team was good for the entire state. It passed in the Senate
34-32 and in the House 71-61. The governor held a signing ceremony for it
on the field of the Metrodome. LEA favored a NO vote.

8. Gopher Football Stadium
SF 2460, HF 263. Sen. Pogemiller, Rep. Abrams. By funding a University
stadium, the legislators threw money at a problem that did not exist.
The original Memorial Stadium was replaced by a large, climate-controlled
stadium to attract athletes and fans. This so-called rational process has
now been reversed by a different set of administrators and developers. The
arguments that a new stadium would attract more fans and produce more
revenue are without merit, given the history, limited size, and location
of the approved stadium plan. The irony is that the U of M officials who
demanded a stadium refused to dip into their swollen coffers or include it
in their regular budget to fund it.
The desire of MN citizens to build another Gopher stadium was so weak
that a shell game, using government land in exchange for government
land, was used to induce citizen and legislative support. Result: the state
(its taxpayers) will pay over $80,000 per acre for rural land, some probably
permanently contaminated by the World War II Gopher Ordnance project,
for parks and riding trails. This bill passed in the Senate 43-24 and in the
House 96-37. LEA favored a NO vote.

9. Light Rail
SF 3246, HF 3342. Sen. Betzold, Rep. Tingelstad. The MN legislature,
unable to learn the painful lessons of passenger rail from the failed experiments
from the rest of the world, continued with their reckless adventures
in waste, fraud and deception. This $60 million plan (this is in addition to
what was proposed in the transportation bill) for the continued expansion
of a black hole program assures the citizens of the area, which passenger
rail serves, that their commutes will continue to be obstructed, expensive,
and without hope. It passed in the Senate 57-5, and in the House 94-38.
LEA favored a NO vote.

14. Omnibus Election Bill
SF 2743, HF 3110. Sen. Hottinger, Rep. Westrom. This bill is essentially
an omnibus election bill. Its original form in the House was a pure voting
systems bill. Unfortunately, the Senate version prevailed and while the
bill maintained ballot protections that were already codified, the additions
were all objectionable and none of the previous problems were corrected.
Examples of onerous additions:
1) Felons are now allowed to vote without having civil rights restored.
They simply sign a polling place roster stating the sentence has expired,
been completed or the sentence discharged.
2) Poll challenges of persons whose mail has been returned as undeliverable
or unacknowledged in the case of registered mail are not allowed.
LEA does not consider the improvement of voting machines and
increased confidentiality for specific individuals sufficient cause to allow
continued and increased fraud. It passed in the Senate 64-0 and in the
House 129-3. LEA favored a NO vote.

15. “Communist” Grocery Stores Authorized
SF 2939, HF 3446. Sen. Johnson, D.E., Rep. Juhnke. The Legislature
approved and authorized local government ownership of unviable businesses.
The city of Pennock is authorized to purchase a business with four
city lots to allow for expansion. The city of Kiester may acquire inventory
and operate a grocery store. No local taxpayer approval is required for this
state socialist action. It passed in the Senate 54-9 and in the House 103-30.
LEA favored a NO vote.

16. Restricting Sale/Rental of Video Games to Minors
SF 785, HF 1298. Sen. Pappas; Rep. Samuelson. This bill is a perfect example
of how the legislature wastes its time and public resources, trying to
create the false impression that it is “doing something,” while imposing
fines on violators. The final enactment of this bill required 40 procedural
steps, including conference committee action, to produce a trivial “solution”
to a serious problem, which was challenged in the courts. There it
was struck down. The bill passed in the Senate 56-6 and in the House 98-
33. LEA favored a NO vote because LEA supports the traditional American
principles of limited government and free enterprise, not petty and onerous
regulation.

17. County Positions Appointed
SF 1878, HF 3263. Sen. Ortman, Rep. Kohls. This bill extends the number
to 26 of county boards that can appoint county recorders, auditors, and
treasurers. It furthers the movement away from democracy and toward
rule by bureaucracy. Voters’ rights to elect these officials were usurped
legally but against the constitutional principle of a government of, by, and
for the people. While citizens have a right to hand over their government
to a ruling class, this was not the type of society envisioned in the constitution.
What is next? It passed in the Senate 59-4 and in the House 68-65.
LEA favored a NO vote.

18. Extending the Monopoly on Radiation Facilities
SF 2532, HF 2810. Sen. Berglin, Rep. Powell. According to current law, all
radiation therapy facilities must be constructed only by an entity owned
and operated by a hospital. This law expires in 2008. Hospitals want their
monopoly extended. On a compromise bill, the sunset was extended to
2013. How long is long enough? The opposition to the bill wanted to let
someone other than a hospital build such a facility, and to let the free market
operate, allowing for the possibility of lower health costs. LEA favored
a NO vote. It passed in the Senate 59-7 and in the House 90-39.

2007 anti-Republican platform votes

3. Deficiency Funding for Agencies
(A euphemism for pork and waste)
SF 846. HF 958. Sen. Cohen; Rep. Solberg. This spending bill easily
captures the worst aspects of all larger omnibus bills. It manages
to reward those agencies that are least judicious with other people’s
money, and there is no reward for the most prudent. There are no
standards or penalties to prevent the mismanagement of government
funds. Worse, there is no plan to return private enterprises back to
the private sector. Agencies that exceeded their budgets had them
replenished with no concomitant requirement to control their budgets
within the appropriation.
The Metro Transit should receive no deficiency funding for capital,
maintenance or operating funds. Subsidizing ridership at a rate
of twice the costs of private transportation is a flagrant redistribution
of wealth. Turning public transportation over to the private sector
would be a solution that is both moral and economical, for a wealth
of problems. LEA favored a “NO” vote. It passed in the Senate 62-0
and in the House 105-29.

4. Renewable Energy Standards
SF 4. HF 4. Sen. Anderson; Rep. Peterson, A. The bill mandates what
the consumer and marketplace cannot sustain and requires electrical
energy to be produced from a variety of unproven, unreliable and
costly sources (wind/sun/bio-mass). The bill requires that 30 percent
of the electricity produced by the major suppliers come from the aforementioned
sources by 2020.
This is another badly misguided energy bill, appealing on the surface,
but rife with deceit. The rhetoric of the proponents is long in
ideals but so lacking in pragmatism that its failure is certain. While
supporters assure all of a cleaner environment with wind-generated
energy, they are unable to guarantee the efficient delivery of sustainable
power.
The lack of local energy sources means that energy will have to
be transmitted to Minnesota customers from long distances, other
states, and Canada. The backers of this plan are so uncertain that
any providers could competitively deliver the power in compliance
with artificially imposed timetables that they rejected an amendment
which would have suspended this program if costs became excessive.
This decision means that consumers will bear the additional costs,
the building of reliable plants will be curtailed, and uninterrupted
energy sources will be uncertain. This problem should have been
turned over to private firms which could compete in an open market.
This always provides the best solutions for the consumers and all
citizens. LEA favored a “NO” vote. It passed in the Senate 64-4 and
in the House 123-10.

8. Indoctrination with Anti-American Curriculum/
International Baccalaureate Program
Olson Amendment to HF 6 (Omnibus early childhood, family, adult,
and pre-kindergarten through grade 12 education finance bill). There
were many excellent conservative amendments proposed for this
omnibus bill. Unfortunately, most of them did not pass. LEA chose
to score this amendment because it would have eliminated state funding
for the International Baccalaureate Program. This program has
started to receive lots of attention this year because the IB program
promotes a one world socialist form of government. Taxpayers’ dollars
should not be used to indoctrinate the children of Minnesota with
anti-American ideology. LEA favored a “YES” vote. The amendment
failed 28-102.

12. Free Market Health Insurance
Olson and Emmer Amendment to Omnibus Health and Human
Services Finance Bill. SF 2171 Sen. Berglin. This amendment was
offered to delete the health insurance exchange, which would have
eliminated the right to buy health insurance privately. The exchange
would have been a new bureaucracy with control over health insurance.
LEA supports policies that advance individual freedom for citizens
and favored a “YES” vote. The amendment failed in the House
12-119. This amendment was not offered in the Senate.
Fortunately, the Governor vetoed the final bill.

16. Help America Vote Act
SF 103. HF 160. Sen. Higgins; Rep. Hilty. The bill is a bureaucrat’s
dream. It allocates funds to eleven different efforts and then vaguely
defines the efforts so that spending could be funneled to the supervising
bureaucrats’ project of choice. Here are the most egregious items
missing from the bill: it does not mandate citizenship verification,
nor compel computer checks of same-day registrants and absentee
ballots, nor mandate prosecution for voter fraud. This bill does nothing
to insure the integrity of the vote and thus does not prevent disenfranchisement
of the legitimate voter. LEA favored a NO vote. It
passed in the Senate 61-4 and in the House 106-25.