Daily Digest: Politics back in pay issue
Good morning and welcome to Friday. Happy St. Patrick's Day to those of you who celebrate and even to those who don't. Here's the Digest.
1. Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt has directed House staff not to pass along a pay raise that was approved by the independent salary council that grew out of the constitutional amendment voters approved last fall. The Legislative Salary Council decided last week to push lawmaker salaries from $31,000 a year to $45,000 a year starting in July, the first hike in base pay since 1999. The council's decision was supposed to be final, but Daudt, R-Zimmerman, said only lawmakers have power to release the funds that would pay for the raise. His colleagues in the Senate disagree. (MPR News)
2. Republicans in the Minnesota Senate are proposing $900 million in tax cuts that they say will help boost the state’s economy. The plan announced Thursday is three times bigger than DFL Gov. Mark Dayton’s tax proposal and includes the first cut to the lowest tax rate since 2000. But Republican lawmakers were short on specifics, including how they plan to pay for the cuts. They say their tax relief plan will benefit middle class families, senior citizens, business owners, farmers and college students, and that they'll release more budget plans today. (MPR News)
3. Lobbying interests spent at least $66 million in 2016 to sway Minnesota officials, and the numbers may grow as big spenders file more reports. According to data from the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, the groups that spent the most on lobbying were business interests. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce spent nearly $2.8 million and the Minnesota Business Partnership spent $1.3 million. Utility businesses were also big spenders: Xcel Energy spent $2.1 million, Otter Tail Power spent nearly $1.3 million and Enbridge Energy Partners, which has been seeking to build a Minnesota pipeline, spent nearly $1.2 million. (Pioneer Press)
4. The Minnesota Department of Human Services is probing the Mayo Clinic for possible violations of civil and human rights laws by putting a higher priority on patients with commercial insurance. The review, confirmed Thursday by DHS Commissioner Emily Piper, follows a Star Tribune report that Mayo will give preference to privately insured patients. Piper's department is also evaluating its various contracts with the Mayo Clinic system, which reaches far beyond its Rochester home base. Those contracts served over 150,000 public program enrollees last year. (MPR News)
5. President Trump’s proposal on Thursday for deep cuts to the budgets of a broad part of the federal bureaucracy was billed as a tough-minded and necessary corrective to the growth of the government’s power. But even members of his own party questioned some of the cuts along with what was not being cut. The harshest criticism of Trump’s budget came from Democrats and liberal organizations. But in a city where many federal programs enjoy longstanding bipartisan support, some Republicans also assailed the president’s judgment. (New York Times)
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