Daily Digest: Outlook cloudy at the Capitol
Good morning, and welcome to Monday. Here's the Digest.
1. The Legislature is on a break this week, and there is plenty of work to be done when they get back. The Republican controlled Legislature and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton have big differences on spending, taxes and policy. Dayton rolled out his two-year budget plan back in January. He's had only a short time to digest the competing House and Senate proposals, but has found plenty that he doesn't like. His list of objections includes delayed enforcement of the state buffer law, weakening of the Public Utilities Commission, cuts to mass transit and cuts to state agencies. There's also disagreement over basic budget numbers, and Dayton wants that cleared up before negotiations begin. (MPR News)
2. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would close the state's Perpich Center for Arts Education and leave the future of its two schools in doubt. The proposal follows a highly critical legislative audit that found lax oversight by the Perpich board and diminished outreach from its school resource wing, along with falling school enrollment and test scores. It noted Perpich Center staff "strongly supported the mission of the agency" but had low morale and were afraid of speaking out against leadership. (MPR News)
3. Gov. Mark Dayton is asking the Legislature to allocate $70 million this year to complete the renovation of the 150-year-old campus of the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter. It’s the most expensive project in the governor’s $1.5 billion bonding proposal for funding public works. The renovation is critical, Dayton said in an interview recently, not only for the safety of patients and staff but also for the security of all Minnesotans, because it separates potentially dangerous people “from schools, parks, neighborhoods and other public settings. … We cannot defer these long-overdue investments any longer.” In the past five years, state officials have recorded 370 patient assaults on staff members that required medical treatment. Last year, 51 injuries were caused by patients assaulting other patients. (Pioneer Press)
4. Your visit to a state park this year could present some problems under the proposed budgets moving through the Legislature. From this piece: Bathrooms may be locked. The nature talk on Minnesota mushrooms could be canceled. Or there might not be any camping after Labor Day — at all or some parks. By 2019, state officials say, the parks’ operating budget would be underfunded by up to $5.8 million under the Senate budget proposal and $1.5 million under the House plan. Either one, or a combination of the two, would continue what park officials say is a decadelong dilemma: Operating funds for the state’s 75 parks have declined, after accounting for inflation, while the number of Minnesotans who use them continues to increase every year. (Star Tribune)
5. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is taking a hard line against Russia on the eve of his first diplomatic trip to Moscow, calling the country “incompetent” for allowing Syria to hold on to chemical weapons and accusing Russia of trying to influence elections in Europe using the same methods it employed in the United States. (New York Times)
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