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By Phil Krinkie
At 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 the Minnesota State Legislature convened in Special Session. Governor Pawlenty had announced that he would call the Special Session at a press conference a mere 24 hours prior to legislators being asked to return to the State Capitol. This pronouncement came five weeks after the 35W bridge collapse and just three weeks after the flooding in southeastern Minnesota.
A little more than 8 hours after it started, the Special Session was over. The House and Senate had passed a $157 million disaster relief measure focused primarily on the flood victims of Southeastern Minnesota.
What was so special about this event was that a major confrontation over transportation funding, local government aid and pork barrel funding projects was avoided.
Legislators from both sides of the political spectrum came together for a few short hours and set aside the partisan rancor and bickering that dominated the 2007 regular session. The DFL leadership reconciled not to use the special session as an opportunity to rehash all of the contentious issues from the regular session that ended in May.
But it could have turned out very differently than it did, had cooler heads not prevailed.
The events leading up to the Special Session began on a warm summer evening in August when Minnesotans witnessed the horrifying event of the 35W bridge collapse. In the aftermath of the bridge collapse, Gov. Pawlenty put forward the possibility of a special session for the consideration of a transportation funding bill, which could include a gas tax increase, which he had previously opposed.
While the DFL leadership welcomed this idea, it didn’t take long before others were piling-on…additional special session proposals ranged from a tax bill, and a bonding bill, to election reform legislation. The talk of a special session ignited legislative proposals like a match on dry prairie grass.
But torrents of rain in mid-August shifted people’s attention away from the 35W bridge disaster to the flood victims in Southeastern Minnesota. While some legislators and special interest groups continued to push for a tax laden transportation package, most people including the Governor soon realized the more immediate need was disaster assistance for the flood victims in southeastern counties.
The tug of war was not over just because hundreds of homes and businesses had been washed away in the August floods, there were still those legislators that wanted to take up the partisan battles where they had had ended in May.
The promise of $250 million from the U.S. Congress to rebuild the 35W bridge helped to solve the immediate transportation funding problem. By Labor Day, the Governor had brought the focus of a special session to only flood relief. None-the-less, reigning in 201 legislators is never an easy task even if it’s for an emergency spending bill.
The Governor’s mounting frustration over the special session wish list combined with his desire to do something quickly for the flood victims, led him to use his executive authority to redirect $32 million of existing revenues to respond to immediate flood relief needs. With this action he believed he could avert a showdown in a special session.
But somewhere over the next 48 hours, the DFL leadership realized that they ran the risk of appearing obstinate and uncaring if they continued to hold out for a broader agenda in a special session. Likewise, the Governor knew that the $32 million that he allocated without legislation was not going to be adequate to cover all of the flood stricken areas needs.
Both sides came to the realization there needed to be a single bill dealing with flood relief and an agreement to pass the legislation in one day. As the hours ticked by on Tuesday, September 11th, some wondered if it would really happen. Could legislators come together and set aside their differences and individual agendas to accomplish a common goal to help the people of southeastern Minnesota. The special thing about the Special Session was that they did come together to get it done.
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