In his State of the State address last night, the Governor asked the legislature to pass his jobs proposals, particularly the bonding bill. He said the voters will decide in November whose budget plan they support, and he urged legislators to put that battle side and work for jobs. Not surprisingly, he listed his proposed bonding bill first among the job bills that should be considered:

Onenationalstudyestimatesmybondingbillwouldcreate21,700jobs, mostofthemintheprivatesector.Ifyou’reskeptical,dividebytwo. That’sstillmorethan10,000Minnesotans,nowunemployed,whocouldbeworkingalloverthestate.

The Governor is absolutely correct — jobs must be our top priority. Unfortunately, the Republican majority in the legislature doesn’t seem to see it that way. They’ve been busy with their constitutional amendments, attacking consumer rights and other assorted nonsense instead of working on jobs legislation.Guess how many jobs Voter ID would create? If you answered “zero,” you’re right.

Our economy is so close to a recovery. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and finish the job, not pull back and take the chance that it falls apart. The legislature should pass the Governor’s bonding bill immediately and put 20,000 Minnesotans back to work.

Earlier today, Mark Dayton vetoed a number of Republican bills that would have reduced consumer protections under the law. The GOP calls these “tort reform,” and claims they’re about reducing frivolous lawsuits. In reality, they provide new windfalls for corporations by taking away our rights to address their wrongdoings.

In one of his veto letters [PDF], Governor Dayton got to the crux of the issue:

I am deeply concerned that this legislation would make it more difficult for average citizens to defend themselves against powerful interests. The suggestion that passage of this measure will somehow create jobs in Minnesota lacks merit and substantiation. Not a single job would be created — but important protections would be greatly impaired.

In this legislative session, we’ve already seen time and time again that the GOP isn’t working to create jobs. Just like last year, all of their energy is focused on giving gifts to the already rich and powerful. I’m glad we have Governor Dayton watching our backs.

In pushing for the Governor’s proposed $775 million bonding proposal, it looks like the Dayton administration will focus on the proposals’ abilities to jumpstart private spending and the creation of permanent jobs. On Friday, the Governor’s team posted an example — a $25 million project to revitalize Nicollet Mall:

The revitalization of Nicollet Mall as a signature business, pedestrian, and retail corridor will help leverage $2.7 billion dollars in private investment to Downtown Minneapolis, creating 13,000 new permanent jobs by 2025. These jobs will generate $174 million dollars in direct revenue to the State of Minnesota. Additionally, reconstruction and redevelopment along the mall will create 22,000 construction related jobs.

Governor Dayton’s bonding proposals strengthen the Minnesota’s economy by using state resources to leverage increased private investment. Reinvigorating Nicollet Mall will help bring new jobs and investments to downtown Minneapolis, continuing a trend towards a more vibrant downtown. Governor Dayton is committed to growing our economy, improving quality of life, and Building a Better Minnesota through important projects like Nicollet Mall. [Emphasis added]

The administration’s focus on leveraging private investments is smart, because it really emphasizes the point of a stimulus program. It’s not just to spend money directly to create jobs — it’s to provide sparks to jumpstart the private economy. The Nicollet Mall project is a perfect example of that.

Even if the estimates above end up being significantly over-confident, a small public investment will jumpstart private investments many times larger than the relatively small cost of the project. This small public investment could leverage billions in private funding, creating thousands of jobs and ultimately paying for itself. How many Minnesotans would really object to that?

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.

Mark Dayton and the DFL are proposing a $775 million bonding bill this session, which is smaller than they should have; $1 billion would be much better. But despite the GOP’s professed commitment to jobs — a commitment we’ve never seen any evidence of — they’re planning a woefully inadequate bonding bill:

[House Capital Investment Committee Chair Larry] Howes says he thinks the maxiumum size for a bonding bill this year in the House is about $500 million.

Sorry, but that’s nowhere near good enough. Not only is it an insufficient job creator, it’s fiscally irresponsible. Interest rates are still historically low. Nobody can deny that our roads, bridges, and schools have been underfunded lately; why not improve them now before interest rates increase?

In fact, the Governor’s bonding proposal would reduce our debt service payments. According to Minnesota Management and Budget [PDF], the ten-year average for bonds is — wait for it — $775 million. That’s exactly what the Governor is proposing for this year, but in a year with very low interest rates. The effect will be to slightly reduce our debt service payments.

Given that the Governor’s proposal would reduce our debt-service payments, I can’t possibly think of a good reason to spend $300 million less and kill thousands of jobs.

The UpTake has some great video of Mark Dayton speaking at the Blue State Ball on Saturday. Dayton skewered the GOP for their one sole priority during the last legislative session:

…an absolute unwavering devotion to their mantra that there will be no tax increases on the richest Minnesotans. And everything else — everything else sacrificed at that altar. Property taxes increased, school funding withheld, borrowing from our future with tobacco bonds… everything and anything so as not to make the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans pay their fair share of taxes.

I couldn’t agree more. I noted back in July that the GOP’s lone victory was protecting multi-millionaires. And I’m glad Dayton is willing to bring this to the forefront of the debate.

In fact, Dayton went on to urge DFLers to take a strong stand on raising taxes on the very rich, calling it good policy and good politics. He’s absolutely right — after all, he took back the Governor’s mansion with those politics. I hope DFL legislative candidates will heed his advice.

Watch the whole speech below:

Mark Dayton and DFL legislators are pushing for a bold jobs plan during the 2012 legislative session. Even-numbered years at the legislature are typically centered around passing a bonding bill, and the DFL is proposing a plan that would put thousands of Minnesotans back to work.

The DFL’s proposed bonding bill would be $775 million, which is significantly less than the $1 billion our state really needs, but would still create a significant number of jobs.

A bonding bill is an excellent remedy for weak consumer demand, which is the main problem with our economy right now. Money spent on bonding goes directly into our economy, purchasing both manufactured materials and labor. Even more important than the people put directly to work by the bonding bill is the money pumped into the economy. Each new worker and supplier for the bonding projects has additional money for their own consumer spending, creating a virtuous circle that can expand the economy by more than the number of direct hires.

The plan also includes a small tax credit that should have a lot of bang for its buck:

To encourage businesses to hire new employees, Governor Dayton and the DFL Legislators propose offering a New Jobs Tax Credit.  This would be a one-time $3,000 tax credit to any Minnesota business for each veteran, unemployed worker or recent graduate they hire during calendar year 2012, and a $1,500 credit for each new hire through June 2013.  This $35 million program would create over 10,000 new, private-sector jobs this year.

The full plan can be found here [PDF].

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Yesterday, the Dayton administration applied for a waiver from No Child Left Behind, making it one of the first 11 states to do so. In the waiver request [DOCX], the administration described a strong commitment to evaluating our schools, but evaluating them in ways NCLB does not allow. Here’s an excerpt from the application

Since the last reauthorization of the ESEA, Minnesota has raised academic standards, developed tools for holding schools accountable for improving the academic performance of students, and provided schools with support to improve the quality of instruction. The waivers and principles included in this Flexibility Request proposal will allow Minnesota to utilize these carefully developed tools for improving student learning and increasing the quality of instruction.

Minnesota’s academic standards are the core of our accountability system. Schools are accountable for all students meeting statewide college- and career-ready academic standards. All accountability efforts are, therefore, directed at increasing the likelihood that students will achieve proficiency on the assessments aligned to the state standards.

ESEA Flexibility will allow us to take advantage of a wider variety of data to better identify schools that truly need support. With legislative support, Minnesota has developed a growth model to measure students’ academic performance from year-to-year. If approved, Minnesota will use growth metrics, along with proficiency status and graduation rates to identify schools for Priority, Focus and Reward. The addition of growth data to the accountability system will give the public a more complete picture of how schools are performing.

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It’s almost certain now that any Vikings stadium will have to be funded by an expansion of gambling. Since Mark Dayton and the legislature ruled out a sales tax, gambling is really the only option left. That’s going to hurt tribes, who rely on gambling to bring in the vast majority of their revenues. So this is really adding insult to injury:

Governor Dayton says he’s open to asking the state’s tribal leaders for a contribution to pay for a new Vikings stadium.

Dayton’s spokeswoman told MPR News that Dayton’s deputy chief of staff met with lobbyists representing the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe and Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. Those tribes run two of the largest tribal casinos in the state. Dayton told MPR News that he hasn’t spoken directly with tribal leaders but he endorsed the idea of asking them to make a contribution to help pay for a stadium.

Just to let you know, we’re going to fund a new Vikings stadium with a state-sponsored competitor to your casinos. Hey, by the way, would you mind giving us some of your casino revenues, too? Zygi Wilf is really demanding a lot of money.

This is fantastic news:

Today, Governor Dayton and the Leaders of the Republican and DFL Caucuses in the House and Senate reaffirm that there is not majority support in either body for an exemption from a voter referendum…

Governor Dayton said, “Last Friday’s meeting was very significant in eliminating one proposed source of financing for a People’s Stadium in either Ramsey County or Minneapolis, unless the Vikings are willing to endure the time delay and continuing uncertainty in obtaining voters’ approval. Given this reality, we are now actively assessing and discussing with the team other financing options.”

As bad an idea as it is to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars to a profitable company run by a billionaire, the mechanism of financing it through a single-county sales tax was just as bad. A stadium that is supposedly a benefit for all the citizens of Minnesota should not be financed by taxing the citizens of only one county, leaving everybody else to enjoy all of the benefits but share none of the responsibility.

The legislature deserves a lot of credit for killing this proposal. One of the reasons why this financing mechanism is so crummy is that it would be easy for legislators from counties other than Ramsey to support it. They could ensure that the financing gets done, without having to face a backlash for taxing their own constituents.

Of course, I don’t love exotic financing schemes like a Minneapolis casino, either. If we’re going to pay for this stadium, everyone should pay — we should implement a small statewide tax for the stadium. But at least proposals like expanded gambling, while relying on a small minority to finance the stadium instead of all Minnesotans, finance it on the backs of willing participants instead of unwilling. That’s a small step forward.