A cumbersome committee structure is a barrier to public participation and process transparency.

It’s a situation that concerns Geoff Barsch, president of the Minnesota Governmental Relations Council, who offered recommendations for change to the House Governmental Operations, Reform, Technology and Elections Committee. The committee is looking at ways to improve the legislative process.

Too many committees lead to overlap and bills not being fully vetted, Barsch said.

He said it is hard for an experienced lobbyist, like himself, to follow the process, but nearly impossible for the general public. “More and more bills are being sent from one committee to the next with work left to be done, and we keep hearing this phrase, ‘This bill has a lot of stops to make before it gets to the floor.’”

While I certainly meant this to be a series, I never expected it to be a DAILY series....

Today's lesson comes to us from the great state of Florida where they have found a way to make health insurance affordable for the 3.8 million Floridians who do not have access to insurance.

But the Florida reform, which both houses of the legislature approved unanimously, renounces Mr. Obama's favored remedy: It nudges the government out of the health-care marketplace. Insurance companies will be permitted to sell stripped-down, no-frills policies exempted from the more than 50 mandates that Florida otherwise imposes, including for acupuncture and chiropractics. The new plans will be designed to cost as little as $150 a month, or less.

Emphasis mine. The Florida Legislature has figured out something that the Minnesota Legislature needs to figure out. Mandates make things cost more! It's really that simple!

Mr. Crist observed that state regulations increase the cost of health coverage, and thus rightly decided to do away with at least some of them. It's hard to believe, but this qualifies as a revelation in the policy world of health insurance. The new benefit packages will be introduced sometime next year and include minimum coverage for primary care and catastrophic expenses for major illness.

Of course, the defenders of government interference are not happy with this development.

Critics are already saying that, without mandates, the plan won't guarantee quality of care. That's purportedly why the states have imposed more than 1,900 specific-coverage obligations.

However, the WSJ writers give that objection the slashing it so richly deserves.

These government rules are imposed without regard for how much they will cost and who will bear the burden. In practice, the costs are disproportionately carried by lower- and middle-income workers, who already on average have more limited insurance coverage as part of their compensation, or none at all. When prices rise because of mandates, the less affluent are often forced to make an all-or-nothing choice between "Cadillac coverage," which involves just about everything, or going uninsured. In other words, they're prohibited from buying the lower-cost options that might be better suited to their needs.

A great example is from the Logical Household. No one in the Logical Household will EVER need treatment for Tay Sachs Disease or Sickle Cell Anemia. However, because of Minnesota state mandates, our insurance company is required to provide it to us! Now if we were to adopt a Jewish or African American child, that coverage would indeed be necessary, but as free people we should be ALLOWED to make that decision for ourselves! Not have the government decide it for us.

The people of Florida should be proud that their legislature took the biggest step to date in making insurance affordable to those who need it. Will the Minnesota Legislature be the next to make this bold decision? We can only hope!

Gary Gross has a post up on this Doug Grow MinnPost column.Gary does a great job tearing the base premise of the column apart but I do have to add to one comment.  Gary remarks:

...Here’s how Grow finishes his post:

As November approaches, Republicans are trying to understand who they are. Meantime, DFLers are bouncing around the state more robust, and unifed, than they’ve been in a quarter century.

There isn’t any doubt that DFL legislators are unified....

If you watched the floor debates from the last month of the session you would know that the claim of unity is patently false!  Whether the subject was Education funding or property tax relief, there were countless speeches on the House floor from outstate DFL'ers about how the leadership (who are all from metro cities) were overlooking the needs of outstate townships and giving everything to the metro.  If there was any unity in that caucus, it was the unity of fear of the leadership.  The DFL leadership made it clear, through out the session that there would be consequences to voting against them.  When Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba voted initially against the Transportation bill, rumor has it she was told that she would lose her committee chairmanship if she voted against the over-ride.  

Here's a little more from Grow on the "dis-unity" that he says is afflicting the GOP.

Like Tingelstad, Rep. Neil Peterson, a Republican from Bloomington, has felt the wrath of his party for joining the Override Six. He was not endorsed at his district convention, meaning he’ll have to run against a more pure, endorsed candidate in a September primary.

“The leadership in the party has become very conservative,” said Peterson. “It’s caused quite a rift. Next week, they have a (district party) monthly meeting that we’ve always been invited to to discuss how the session went. This year, I’m not invited. Neither is Ron Erhardt. They don’t even want to hear from us.”

Erhardt, from Edina, is another of the Override Six. He’s been representing his moderate district for 18 years but now is pondering whether to try to continue his job by running in the Republican primary or as an independent.

“I’m not sure if this is Ron Paul people or what,” said Peterson. “I just know I don’t pass their test.”

Mr. Grow...shall we talk about Reps. Joe Muellery and Willie Dominguez?  It seems that your unity meme does not apply to them.  You see, like Reps. Peterson and Erhardt, Reps. Muellery and Dominguez were not endorsed by their respective BPOU's this year.  Do you suppose the Ron Paul people infiltrated those BPOU's as well?  Or do you suppose that maybe, JUST MAYBE is it because, like Reps. Peterson, Erhardt et al, these representatives are no longer "representing" their district?

This idea of strict party unity is one of those memes (media themes) that just does not wash when put through the scrutiny of reality.  The reality is that the local party unit decides if their representatives are really representing them and if they are not, it is the local unit's choice whether or not to endorse!  In the case of Representatives Muellery, Tinglestad, Dominguez, Peterson and Erhardt the reality was that the BPOU did not endorse because the member in question was no longer "representing" the district.  It has nothing to do with "party unity" and everything to do with "local representation".

Then again, I realize that local representation is a foreign concept to reporters and elitists like Doug Grow.

Hat tip to the Junior Logician and his best friend for the title of this post!  Even teenaged boys sometimes "get it".

• $24,000,000 for a new Natural History Museum on the UM St. Paul Campus
• $2,000,000 for UM classroom renovations in Crookston, Duluth, Morris and TC Campus' (Morris is represented by Republican Torrey Westrom BTW)
• $11,000,000 for the Lake Superior Technical College for an addition to their Health and Science Center
• A $240,000 appropriate for ISD 11 to buy and develop a property - why should taxpayers in ISD 719 pay for property purchases in ISD 11?
• $3,000,000 for an expansion of the National Volleyball Center in Rochester (represented by a Republican and a Democrat)
• $2,000,000 to remove and replace the old Cedar Ave Bridge for bicycle users    AND
• $11,000,000 for renovations to the Como Zoo gorilla exhibit

It is the last one that has the writers of MinnPost in a lather.  "Pawlenty to gorillas: Drop dead" is the headline to this breathless rant at "The Glean"

Gorillas in shoeboxes. Trains wrecked. Gov. Tim Pawlenty tore through the bonding bill, line-iteming $208 million, twice as much as needed to get under his $825 million ceiling. The $70 million cut from a Minneapolis-St. Paul LRT link gets most of the press (the state would lose $450 million in federal dollars). However, $11 million nixed for bigger Como Zoo facilities, mostly gorilla habitat, punches the animal-welfare hot button.

I've been to the Como Zoo and while the gorilla enclosures could be a little bigger, it's not like the funding cut was going to FEED them or anything.   If the gorilla enclosure is that important to the City of St. Paul, why don't they go to their taxpayers for the money?  The answer is that the City knows that they will have a riot on their hands if they did.  Just ask Mitch about what it is like to live in St. Paul.

For those of us who have bemoaned the media bias in this state, the Glean provides us with plenty of examples of proof.

Bonding politics: the PiPress cover says it all: "Sorry, St. Paul." (Hat tip to Finance & Commerce for this: "Pawlenty to St. Paul: Drop Dead.")

The funny (ironic and funny ha ha) thing is that both Minneapolis and Duluth papers are claiming the same thing.  Come on guys....which is it?  Which city does the Governor "hate" more?

And then there is the reaction from the Sorosphere. 

Today, Minnesota Monitor compared Governor Pawlenty to a murderer:
“On Monday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty gave the state Legislature’s bonding bill a haircut almost as extreme as the one Javier Bardem wears in No Country for Old Men. In fact, much of the recent drama over the bonding bill seemed like a pale reprise of the Coen Brothers’ screenplay, with Pawlenty trading in his veep-quality coiffure for the malevolent comb-over of ‘No Country’ villain Anton Chigurh, who kills at the toss of a coin.” Source: Minnesota Monitor, April 8, 2008
“Once he had killed $100 million in spending from the bill, Pawlenty just kept killing.” Source: Minnesota Monitor, April 8, 2008
“Well, maybe Pawlenty is not such
an indiscriminate killer after all…” Source: Minnesota Monitor, April 8, 2008
“Even if you gave him the money [Pawlenty] still kill you. He’s a peculiar man.” Source: Minnesota Monitor, April 8, 2008

Emphasis in the original.  What can you say?

I got the most interesting email from Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-35B) the other day.

As Monday's snowstorm continued, the Minnesota House of Representatives plans too take up the all important issue of. a resolution urging the President and Congress to end trade, financial, and travel restrictions to Cuba. With all the important issues facing our state including deficits, loss of jobs, educational woes and healthcare issues, symbolic resolutions on issues we have no control over are a waste of the taxpayers' time.

Lest you think he jests check out page 9477 of the daily Journal of the House where SF 599 was put on the calendar for the day. This is a bill that was introduced last year in the House and the Senate (with bi-partisan support I would add) but it languised in committee and never saw the light of day until Feb. 19. It was passed out of the House Commerce and Labor Committee on Feb. 19 and sat until March 31.

It just seems to be a little strange that this bill is even being considered when you look at waht this state is facing. Why in heavens name would our legislature stick it's collective noses into Federal business when we have businesses fleeing the state due to a deteriorating business climate. Forbes Magazine lists out the best and worst metro areas to do business and when it comes to the cost of doing business (based on costs of labor, taxes, energy and office space) in the Minneapolis/St Paul metro, we come in at 172 out of 200! Our overall ranking is 103 out of 200, based on the high education ranking (percentage of population with a bachelors degree or higher), but when you look at just the cost of doing business and the job growth ranking (which does not include this current job downturn) this state is in world of hurt. Why is our legislature spending money that they don't have on projects that are not "essential" to the survival of the state?

That is, I think, the question we must ask ALL of our legislators. Why are we discussing Federal trade restrictions with Cuba when we have a rising unemployment rate and faltering economy of our OWN to worry about?

I live in Rep Jeremy Kalins district and was very upset to read the article by Margaret Martin dated 3/11/08, in which he was quoted as saying, "welfare recipients are the real working people of minnesota, because they are trying to get to the top of the economic food heap". I shared that article with several of my customers, and a friend of mine faxed kalin the article. Please read the response that was recieved....
Dear _________, Thanks for your fax and the opportunity to correct the record. The quote was entirely fabricated by the republican caucus. I did not say it or anything close to it. Further, the amandment does not do anything close to providing "free towing for welfare recipients". In fact, the only way that small provision in my amendment would be relevent would be if somebody abandoned his or her vehicle in the tow lot.
Thanks for the opportunity to correct the record. One of my mottos is "In God we
trust, everyone else needs to bring the data".

Here is an annotated transcript that was forwarded to me today of the discussion
during that interval of the House floor session on May 10, 2007:...
Note: When Rep. Seifert said "if you are on some type of public relief program, and
you don't scoop your vehicle out and it gets towed, you kind of get treated differently than if you are someone who works," Rep. Kalin shook his head. And when there was a brief break in the action ten seconds later, Rep. Kalin said aloud, "welfare recipients are the real working people of Minnesota, because they are trying to get to the top of the economic heap." It is not on the tape, but it was heard. And it is consistent with Rep. Kalin's underlined comments that are noted above.