After a challenging school year and a campaign season that began in January, I was thrilled to take a four day break with a few of my friends from the Minnesota alternative programs association (MAAP) .
Dan Daly of Liberty High Charter School in Blaine was the MAAP President just preceding me, and he suggested I join him, Gene Johnson and Mark Anderson for quick fishing trip to Bemidji.
Mark and Gene
Gene Johnson is a retired Dept. of Education official who helped many state alternative programs get off the ground, and he helped schools to develop programs that worked for students. If a program struggled with rules or regulations, he viewed it as his responsibility to help them become a better school, and would not cast aspersions and threaten as we see so often now with the ‘No Child Left Behind’ initiative – his work epitomizes education reform. Mark Anderson is a program director in Cass Lake and he works with expeditionary learning, which is a method of teaching that involves hands on and discovery techniques, he’s working on a nature guide curriculum. He was also our guide on the fishing trip and encouraged us to check out Focus Fishing. Cass Lake ALC has been a strong proponent of such hands on programs as Youthbuild.
We started fishing on Lake Plantagenet
where this Northern didn’t get away – at least long enough for this photo!
We were fishing for walleye, and we let this monster go. Between us, we caught ten walleye and had a great meal prepared by Chef Mark. Mark lives on an old lumber camp a ways into the woods west of Bemidji. His retriever pup Thor
is addicted to ‘fetch’ and would bring back any thing any one threw, which is why he couldn’t go fishing. Mark knew he’d try to fetch every cast and would take up any excuse to jump in the water.
The next day we tried Lake Bemidji, where I caught a 20 inch Walleye. It was great to get away for a few days, but Bemidji wasn’t quite far enough. I couldn’t help but notice disparaging comments by Rep. Eric Paulson, who on recent trip to Bemidji tried to blame the DFL Senate for the impasse on the special session. Dan, who is fiercely independent when it comes to politics and challenges me often, said, “It’s ridiculous for House Republicans to argue that they want to negotiate when they keep bringing up these divisive social issues that get in the way of doing the people’s business. If they really wanted to get things done they would get down to business.”
When I got home I was pleased to find a copy of Sen. Dean Johnson’s letter to the Bemidji paper responding to Rep. Paulson’s accusations and eloquently making the same observations. It’s an excellent letter, here it is:
Senate Democrats stand ready to negotiate
Thursday, June 17, 2004
By Dean Johnson
Majority leader Minnesota Senate
House Republican Majority Leader Erik Paulsen of Eden Prairie recently visited Bemidji to call into question my leadership of the Minnesota Senate.
It is unfortunate that Rep. Paulsen finds his time best spent in this manner. If House Republicans spent as much time working on legislation in public meetings as they do on the “blame game,” we would have the state’s problems eliminated in short order.
I have had the privilege of serving the citizens of west and central Minnesota for 24 years, while Rep. Paulsen has been at the Capitol for 10. During my service, I have yet to travel to another city to criticize the leadership qualities of a House majority leader. More often than not, positive results are achieved for Minnesota when people work in a bipartisan fashion and focus on the good of the state- not engage in personal attacks.
To set the record straight for the good people of the Bemidji area, Senate Democrats passed legislation that would have balanced the budget by cutting high-level political appointees. We passed tougher sentences for sexual predators. We protected funding for our rural hospitals and nursing homes.
Unlike House Republicans, Senate Democrats passed legislation calling for tax fairness by closing loopholes for big businesses that are dodging their responsibilities. We passed legislation that eliminated the outsourcing of state jobs. We passed an incremental increase to the state’s minimum wage.
House Republicans wanted nothing to do with these policies.
In regards to the bonding bill, 100 percent of Senate Democrats supported a comprehensive and aggressive package. Our caucus has 35 members, and all 35 voted in favor of the bonding bill.
We can’t do better than that.
As President Reagan once said, “Facts are stubborn things.” The fact is the bonding bill failed in the Senate because the governor insisted Senate Republicans vote “no.” They placed party politics over sound policy.
In 1998, seven Republicans voted for a bonding bill of $999 million. In 2002, the bonding bill was $879 million and 15 Republicans voted for it. This year, the bonding bill was $880 million, yet Republicans voted against it, saying it was too large. It is obvious partisanship took precedence over people in the Senate Republican caucus this year.
As a result, needed investments to higher education, the environment and our transportation system will go unfunded. For example, the Senate bill included funding for the Heartland DNR project and Bridgeman Hall at Bemidji State. Yet Republicans, such as Carrie Rudd, voted no. When Rep. Paulsen requests a bonding bill, perhaps he should speak with Sen. Rudd before he attacks Democrats.
The true root of the current legislative stalemate does not lie in the Senate, but in House Republicans unwillingness to meet in public forums for debate.
When the Senate passed its budget balancing bill, the House was required to set up a conference committee to compromise the differences. The speaker of the House was the only legislator who could do this. Rather than working the differences out in public, as the process dictates, the speaker ignored his responsibility and chose not to appoint negotiators.
As a result, the session stalled to an end and the budget deficit remained unsolved. The speaker would prefer to turn the clock back 50 years and return to the days of back room, secret meetings that are free from public scrutiny. Senate Democrats find this unacceptable.
Last week, Senate Democrats offered a compromise framework in which a special session could be organized. The offer focused on the most pressing needs of the state and called for public negotiations on the budget, taxes and a bonding bill. The speaker said this common-sense offer was not worth considering. His response makes me question the sincerity of his willingness to do the people’s business.
Senate Democrats stand ready to negotiate the business of the people in public meetings as our democracy calls for. If the governor calls a special session, and we have encouraged him to do so, we will respectfully continue to negotiate the positions we feel are best for the future of our state. We will do so until we have an acceptable compromise and a positive outcome.
Citizens of Minnesota expect and deserve nothing less.
If Republican legislators spent as much of their time focusing on job development, tax fairness, education, public safety and the environment as they did on their radical social agenda, or telling people how to live their private lives, Minnesota would be an even better state in which to live.
Dean E. Johnson, DFL-Willmar, is majority leader of the Minnesota Senate.Content © 2004 Pioneer