In case you haven’t been paying close attention, allow me to quickly summarize the last week of news out of the legislature:

Vikings Vikings Vikings Vikings Vikings Vikings Vikings Vikings

Meanwhile, the economy remains precarious, but though construction season is well underway, the bonding bill has been placed on the back burner. It should have been passed two months ago. Whatever happens with the Vikings stadium, it’s no substitute for a real bonding bill that would create tens of thousands of jobs and make important investments in our state. The legislature should be putting jobs first.

Finally, though, there’s a bit of progress. Unfortunately, it appears legislators have agreed on a bonding bill that’s half as large as it should be:

[Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker] insisted the bonding bill will remain at $496 million, a figure the four legislative leaders and Capital Investment experts agreed upon.

The deal comes after DFL House members repeatedly criticized Republicans for putting forward a bill that didn’t spend enough and didn’t have DFL input.

Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said she’s pleased with the changes. She said Democrats made the decision to support the bill even if it didn’t meet their initial expectations. She said a smaller bill is better than no bill at all.

I agree that creating half the jobs we possibly could is better than creating no jobs. But you know what’s even better? Creating all the jobs.

I guess I should be happy that there will be a bonding bill at all, given the MNGOP’s aversion to jobs legislation and the Capitol’s fixation on the Vikings. I can’t help feeling, though, like this is a major missed opportunity.

It’s truly impressive how everything the MNGOP touches turns to red ink. They’ve mismanaged the state budget, their own party budget, the State Senate budget, and now the State House budget as well:

The Minnesota House has already spent more for per diem — those daily expense payments lawmakers get — than it had budget for the year….

House leaders had planned to end the session by April 30 but blew through that self-imposed deadline. It’s not clear now when session would end.

House leaders had planned to adjourn three weeks early, a laudable but unlikely goal with a split government. But instead of budgeting for a complete session and having some savings left over at the end, they treated their goal as a foregone conclusion. This is what happens when you have a party whose policies are all based on nothing but empty wishes.

The Republican party around the nation seems to be incapable of engaging with reality. They live in a fantasy world where trickle-down economics works and wildly rosy budget assumptions can just be willed into being. Here in Minnesota, we’re seeing the consequences: Things never, ever work out like the Republicans imagine, and they force the rest of us to pay the price.

Minnesota, we can’t let the GOP continue to exercise any control over our state finances until they get their act together and return to reality.

It seems almost definite that Governor Dayton will veto the MNGOP’s outrageous, irresponsible tax bill. This bill will give another tax cut to the rich and big corporations, without even attempting to pay for it. Instead, the Republicans would use fraudulent accounting maneuvers to make it appear paid for.

Dayton has proposed an alternative to the GOP bill that includes certain targeted, temporary tax cuts meant to stimulate job growth, but without the irresponsible long-term budget-busting corporate tax cuts. MPR reports that Dayton said the existing GOP plan would “”rob from the financial future of the state,” which is entirely accurate.

I was never particularly worried about where Dayton stood on this as a stand-alone bill. It goes against his most firmly-held principles on fair taxation. My plea to the Governor not to sign the bill was out of concern that it might find its way back on the table as part of a deal for a bonding bill and/or Vikings stadium. That’s still possible, as anything can happen in last-minute end-of-session negotiations.

I can only hope that once the Governor has vetoed the bill once, it will stay dead. Hopefully, having proclaimed his opposition to the MNGOP’s irresponsible corporate tax cuts, Dayton will stick to his principles if the corporate tax cuts are raised again in end-of-session negotiations. The people of Minnesota elected Dayton because of his message of tax fairness; we won’t forget if he abandons those principles.

Republicans are trying to get Governor Dayton to sign an absolutely outrageous tax bill, which would increase the deficit to give more money to the rich and corporations, and use fraudulent accounting to do so. What would make them think he would possibly sign it? They’re hoping the Governor’s eagerness to get a Vikings deal done will give them leverage.

I think Dayton’s principles on tax fairness and honest budgeting are too strong for that. But I want to make sure I add my voice to those pleading with him not to sign the Republicans’ latest attack on our state’s fiscal stability.

Governor Dayton, you were elected after a campaign that focused strongly on tax fairness. It would be a major betrayal of your campaign promises to give in and sign a bill that will make things even worse. The Republicans want to make all Minnesotans pay for corporate tax cuts that won’t create a single job. Their bill is the antithesis of everything you stand for.

Admittedly, you were also candid about your support for a Vikings stadium. But now you’re faced with a question of priorities. Is the Vikings stadium worth compromising your principles on tax fairness, which propelled you into office? I don’t see it as a fair trade, and I hope you won’t either.

Governor Dayton, Minnesota needs you to stand up for the 99 Percent. We’ve been able to trust you to do that throughout your term, and I believe you’ll make the right decision this time. Let the bills stand on their own merits. Getting a deal on the Vikings isn’t worth abandoning your principles on tax fairness.

There is no limit to the fiscal fraud the MNGOP is willing to perpetrate in their quest to bestow ever-greater handouts on the rich and powerful. They’ve already put us billions of dollars in debt to keep taxes on the super-rich low. Now they want to increase the deficit even further for yet another giveaway. But it gets even worse. They can’t pay for their new tax cut for the rich, so they’re just planning to commit accounting fraud to “pay” for it:

In the tax bill, Republicans are betting that the economy will continue to improve, which would mean more tax revenue to the state.

The plan directs Minnesota Management and Budget to book higher than expected tax collections from February and March to pay for the changes. Typically, lawmakers rely on the February revenue forecast as they make tax and spending decisions, not the partial information that comes from monthly tax reports….

The bill would also pit tax cuts for businesses against school funding. That’s because current law says any surplus money from the November forecast would be used to pay back a K-12 school payment delay. This bill short-circuits that process by capturing tax revenue that hasn’t been recorded in the forecast yet.

This is just insane. Minnesota Republicans are out of control. No wonder they’re being evicted — they should never, ever be trusted with our state’s budget again. 

I don’t know about you, but I find late-night and weekend votes at the Legislature absolutely unacceptable. This happens every year, no matter who is in control of the Capitol — legislators frantic to finish their work have marathon sessions that can sometimes run until midnight. There’s very little room for transparency in a midnight vote.

I think we need to reform the Legislature works, and in the process, this practice should be strictly limited. The reforms could be modeled after a bill already proposed by DFLer Ryan Winkler of Golden Valley.

Winkler’s bill would ban closed door meetings and meetings between midnight and 7 am. I would encourage limiting meetings even further, perhaps limiting meetings after 9 pm. It’s hard to imagine many bills that are so urgent that they can’t be postponed until the next day.

However, I can imagine that it might happen on occasion. Because there may indeed be occasional urgent matters that need immediate attention, I don’t think late-night meetings should be banned. However, they should be of sufficient importance that most legislators agree about the urgency. After 9pm, all bills should require a two-thirds majority to pass.

For work that is either urgent or uncontroversial, late-night sessions may still be possible. But controversial bills that require public debate must always be accessible to the general public.

There are a lot of big issues to be resolved before the legislative session can come to a close, such as passing a jobs bill and finally resolving the fate of the Vikings stadium. But according to the Star Tribune, the MNGOP’s top priority is a tax cut for the rich:

“It is our highest priority — to get that tax reform to Minnesotans as soon as possible,” said Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, chair of the Senate Taxes Committee and the Senate’s Deputy Majority Leader….

The bill is to come to the floors of the House and Senate on Monday. It was not negotiated with DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, who has objected to tax cuts that would add to the deficit in the next budget cycle.

Yes, you read that right — the MNGOP is proposing new tax cuts that would add to our already sizable budget deficit. Here’s what the MN Budget Project says about the proposed tax cuts:

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They managed to keep it secret for months, but we finally found out just how much the State Senate is paying to defend itself from former MNGOP Deputy Chairman Michael Brodkorb. The cost is a mindblowing $330 an hour.

It’s not difficult to imagine that this will cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. At that hourly rate, just 30 hours of work will cost us $10,000. It’s a bitter irony that while they’re haranguing us about the need for fiscal responsibility, corruption in the GOP-led Senate is costing us a fortune.

And I can’t help but wonder exactly who is going to be made to pay for this in the end. As some of you may recall, the Senate was faced with a shortfall earlier this year, and decided to resolve it by decimating the DFL Caucus, without taking any responsibility for their own actions. What’s to prevent them from once again cutting DFL staff to pay for their own corruption and irresponsibility?