Legislative Review Road Trip
by jp cola
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posted May 16 2011 5:08PM
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I enjoyed going to St. Paul Saturday to do the Legislative Review Show from the conference room of the State Office Building, next to the Minnesota State Capitol. The lawmakers were holding a special Saturday session and couldn't make it to the station for the show, so I took the show to them. My thanks go out ot Catherine Thompson, the DFL media person, for setting up the equiptment for me. All I had to do was sit down and start talking at 11:07 a.m. Saturday. Representatives Vogel, Urdahl, Koenen, Falk and Anderson were there, but things really got rolling when House Minority Leader Paul Theisen came in. You don't get to a position of party leadership without mastering a little hyperbole, and Theisen did not disappoint. He called the GOP budget plan an "all cuts budget" and outlined the disasterous things that will happen if it passes...the sick and elderly expelled into the streets, children not getting taught, mass chaos etc. Vogel bristled at the portrayal of their plan as an "all cuts" budget because spending actually will increase 8% from the last biennium budget. Normally Bill Werner does our capitol reporting from St. Paul, but being there myself really showed how entrenched both sides were, and how unlikely adjournment by the May 23rd (next Monday) deadline is.
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