When they’re not busy with petty attacks against the DFL, the MNGOP’s big focus this year is supposed to be “reform.” That’s the agenda they hope will convince the public to forget about how the GOP sold them out last year when it comes time to vote. Of course, their so-called “reform” is just the same garbage the GOP has been pushing for the last 30 years, but at least it’s a better election-year platform than “sorry we put the state $1.4 billion in debt!”

Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley) says that if we’re going to talk about “reform,” we should be starting by reforming the legislature itself. Winkler and other DFL legislators are introducing a package of reforms that includes the following:

• Require parties to disclose when legislators are on the party payroll.
• Prohibit party officials from holding public jobs in the House, Senate, and Joint Legislative Commissions.
• Ban closed door meetings and meetings between midnight and 7 am.
• Require the Legislature to institute a plan for record retention.
• Prevent future state shutdowns by continuing appropriations at current levels if no budget agreement is reached by the end of the budget period.
• Create a redistricting commission to draw political boundaries in the future.
• Limit the amount a governor can unilaterally reduce spending via the process known as “unallotment.”

These all seem like simple common sense to me. The redistricting commission might be a bit controversial, but there’s one major reason to support it: The legislature and Governor haven’t been able to agree on a redistricting plan for decades now, making the existing system completely useless.

So will the GOP legislature consider these reforms? Given that they haven’t been written for them by the masters at ALEC, it’s unlikely.

This is great news:

[Senator Sheldon Whitehouse] will introduce a bill that would ensure that millionaires paying lower tax rates than middle class taxpayers would henceforth pay a 30 percent tax rate.

…under the proposal, those making more than $1 million a year would be required to calculate their overall tax rate, taking into account all their income and the full sum of what they pay in taxes. If that amount adds up to less than 30 percent, they would be required to make up the difference.

Is this a stunt? Sure, in some respects. Whitehouse is certainly proposing the bill knowing full well that it will be voted down, at least. But it does illustrate a very real difference between the Democrats’ and Republicans’ ideologies. The Democrats truly support the bill, and would happily implement it. Likewise, the Republicans truly oppose it; they’re not being trapped with some sort of gimmick that forces them to take a stance they don’t actually hold.

The difference between the two parties on soaring inequality — and the preferential treatment the rich receive — will be a key deciding point in this election. I’m very glad the Democrats are taking steps to ensure that the public understands where the parties stand.

To say Mark Dayton is angry at the partisan attack on one of his appointees would be putting it mildly. Dayton is clearly furious — as he has every right to be. Senate Republicans are clearly bent on spending the legislative session doing nothing but attacking the DFL.

In response to the vote against Ellen Anderson, Dayton released a long statement slamming the Republicans as “unfit to lead:”

You would think after their leadership scandals, which caused them to replace all of their leaders last month, they would behave themselves for at least a little while.  However, they seem incapable of doing so.  After it was disclosed that they had ignored a $2.6 million reduction in their own operating budget during the past six months, the Republican Caucus hired a new Communications Director at a salary $10,000 above his predecessor.  And they picked someone, a decent man, who now has a very serious conflict of interest as a University of Minnesota Regent, which he won’t acknowledge and they won’t deal with – thus sullying the good reputation of our great university.

Last week, their very first week back in session, the Senate Republican leaders addressed their deficit by cutting DFL Senators’ share of the budget almost half-a-million dollars, while cutting theirs…zero.  Zero.  They did it after their new Leader said the Senate was “like family.”  Some family. 

Now, to begin their second week, they have smeared and rejected an outstanding public official.  They claim PUC Chair Anderson is “too extreme.”  Her record proves them wrong.  Since she joined the PUC, there have been 221 votes among the five commissioners, the other four of whom were all appointed by Governor Pawlenty.  Three of them are Republicans….

I’ll tell you what is extreme.  As Chair of the Senate Tax Committee, Senator Julianne Ortman, who leveled the charge of being “too extreme” against Ellen, is the one person most to blame for eliminating the Homestead Market Value Credit last year.  She put the credit’s elimination in the first tax bill, which I vetoed.  During the final negotiations in both June and July, she, more than anyone, insisted on eliminating it.

Clearly, Dayton is hurt by the GOP’s partisan attacks. And can you blame him? In one short week, the GOP has completely blown up any chance of a productive working environment in the Senate. One can’t help but wonder why they decided to create such a poisonous atmosphere.

The legislature has only been back in session for a week, but we already have a clear sense of new majority leader David Senjem’s leadership style: petty and vindictive. On the very first day of the session, his party voted to force the DFL to bear the consequences of the GOP leadership’s fiscal irresponsibility. To start week two, they ousted a dedicated public servant from office:

Minnesota Republicans took the rare step on Monday of voting to remove an appointee of DFL Gov. Mark Dayton.

By a 37-29 party-line vote, Republicans voted against confirming Ellen Anderson, a former longtime member of the Senate, as Dayton’s appointee to chair the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

Trying to hide the vindictive partisan motives behind the move, GOP Senators claimed Anderson was too “extreme.” But as Patrick has already covered, if Ellen Anderson’s tenure at the PUC was “extreme,” then the entire body is extreme, since nearly every vote it has taken has been unanimous during Anderson’s tenure.

Apparently this is what we have to look forward from the GOP under Senjem — a fresh partisan outrage every single week. You’d think they’d be more interested in trying to rebuild their credibility with voters, but I guess they just don’t care about actually governing.

Republicans love attacking our government as big, bloated, and useless. As such, one of their much-touted “reforms” from last year was a Sunset Commission, which was tasked with recommending duplicative or useless agencies that should be abolished. It should make them feel better, then, that the commission couldn’t actually find any government agencies or commissions that need to be eliminated:

The draft report of the Minnesota Sunset Advisory Commission suggests eliminating just one state government commission, and even that proposal could be pulled back. The group recommends eliminating the Combative Sports Commission and rolling its duties into the Amateur Sports Commission. But several Democrats on the commission objected.

Of course, they don’t really want to make our government more efficient — they want to all but disband it. That’s why some Republicans insisted on shuttering agencies simply because they can:

“If we’re a Sunset Advisory Commission, and we come back to the Legislature and say ‘keep everything,’ and don’t do some of the things that seem to be are fairly obvious,” said GOP Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer , “it seems like we have missed an opportunity.”

Rep. Kiffmeyer, your own commission didn’t find any changes to make. Clearly there aren’t any agencies that are “fairly obvious.” And pushing to eliminate agencies just because you can is just another example of your party putting ideology over good governance.

A Public Policy Polling poll [PDF] released on Friday showed once again the constitutional amendment that would ban equal marriage in Minnesota will be extraordinarily close. The bad news is that the poll currently shows the amendment ahead. There’s a lot of good news, too, though.

Q2. Should the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?

• Yes: 48% 
• No: 44% 
• Not sure: 8% 

The amendment, while ahead, is within the margin of error. It also currently doesn’t have the 50 percent it would need to pass. All constitutional amendments must receive 50 percent of all votes cast, so not voting is the equivalent of a “no” vote. As I’ve written before, I believe the amendment will only lose support, not gain it, and undecideds will break heavily against the amendment.

There’s more good news, too. Minnesotans overwhelmingly support legal recognition of same-sex unions. When asked about civil unions as well as marriage, a whopping 71 percent support some form of legal union. I’d be quite surprised if at least some of the folks who support civil unions couldn’t be brought to support equal marriage.

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After a disastrous session last year, in which the GOP agreed to put our state $1.4 billion in debt to protect the super-rich, Minnesota voters seem inclined to return control of the legislature back to the DFL:

When asked, “If there was an election for the Legislature today, do you think you would vote for the DFL or Republican candidate from your district?” 48 percent of those polled said they would vote for the Democrat and 39 percent said they would vote for the Republican. [Star Tribune, full results via Public Policy Polling (PDF)]

The Republicans aren’t doing anything to help their case, either. Instead of showing they can properly govern our state, their top priority in 2012 appears to be petty attacks on the DFL, such as cutting the Senate DFL’s budget and voting PUC chair Ellen Anderson out of office.

The Republicans, seemingly acknowledging that they won’t be in office for long, are switching tactics in their quest to protect the super-rich. Their new plan is to pass a slew of constitutional amendments to force the DFL legislature’s hand in 2013. Not only do we need to work hard to help the DFL take back the legislature, we need to defeat the GOP’s efforts to govern by constitutional amendment as well.

People of Minnesota, you’ve clearly rejected the GOP and their policies. If you’re going to throw them out of office, don’t let them rewrite our constitution on the way out.

Today, Deputy Majority Leader Julianne Ortman announced that Republicans plan to sack Public Utilities Commission chair Ellen Anderson on Monday:

It’s “likely” former DFL Sen. Ellen Anderson — now chairwoman of the state Public Utilities Commission — will be voted out of her job on Monday.

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Julianne Ortman said at Friday’s weekly news conference that Anderson’s “extreme record” made her a tough pick for the job.

Ortman also called Anderson’s record “controversial” and “not in line with most Minnesotan’s views.” What is that record? The numbers are damning for Republicans: six minority votes and 215 majority votes, including 201 unanimous votes.

Governor Mark Dayton called the Republican plan “petty revenge,” and Ortman did little to dispel that notion:

Ortman declined to say how she’ll vote on the confirmation and did not specify whether GOP appraisals of Anderson come from her time as a senator or as chair of the PUC.

Republicans already have a 62% disapproval rating. It’s hard to see how this helps.