State Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, sent out a clear message a week ago: Don't blame me.
Bakk announced that for the near future he won't be caucusing with the Democrats. He is upset that $9 million in taconite taxes was taken away from the Northland in last-minute, closed door negotiations at the State Capitol. He says Senate Majority Leader John Hottinger, DFL-St. Peter, broke a promise to Range legislators.
Northeastern Minnesota has long known that it was going to take a hit on the reform of local government aid (LGA). Over the years, long-time Senate Tax Committee Chair Doug Johnson, DFL-Tower, had doctored the formula in favor of this area. However, Johnson retired last year.
When the Republican-controlled House passed its reform package, and sent it to the Senate, it included three other revenue streams in the LGA reform formula. That meant that if a local government received revenue from any of those three sources, it would receive less state aid through LGA..
In the negotiations, two of the sources were removed from the final bill: sales tax revenue and fiscal disparities (a high-falutin' term meaning communities with low property values get more aid).
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Taconite tax revenue stayed in the formula.
Bakk says that state Finance Commissioner Dan McElroy told Hottinger that the governor would consider removing the $9 million cut from the formula if the Democrats agreed to amend the conceal-and-carry law.
Instead of having to post signs and tell people that guns are not allowed on the premises, the Republicans wanted to amend the law so businesses and churches would have had to do only one or the other.
That was worth $9 million? Maybe if you are a sign maker.
I don't expect Bakk to be outside the party for long. For one thing, northeastern Minnesota isn't Independent country. For another, if Bakk stayed Independent, the DFL would be obligated to challenge him. And a three-way race that included a DFLer turned Independent (or a four-way race that included a Green Party candidate) is the only way a Republican could sneak to victory.
Bakk says he is a Democrat and will continue to be one. "I think leadership sold us out," he said. "Politics triumphed over policy."
He thinks Twin Cities liberals view the new conceal-and-carry law will be a major issue that will help them win the 2004 elections. They didn't want it improved for that reason.
Bakk doubts that it will be a winning issue. He notes that 12,000 people in the state had concealed weapons permits under the old law. Nobody cared.
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The people seeking permits are the law-abiding. Furthermore, in outstate Minnesota gun rights are held fairly sacred.
The challenge facing the DFL is how to regain control of the House of Representatives. The party controls the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul plus a few of the close-in suburbs and northeastern Minnesota. That accounts for 33 of its 52 seats in the House. It needs 16 more seats to regain the majority.
Where will those seats come from? The outer ring suburbs like Eden Prairie and Minnetonka? Or the rural area of Minnesota southwest of a line from Lake of the Woods to Hinckley where the DFL has only 10 out of 53 seats?
The DFL needs to develop an outstate strategy that will play in the farm country to the south and the lakes country of north central Minnesota.
Gun control won't carry those areas. When it sells out its bedrock constituency in northeastern Minnesota in favor of Twin Cities liberal flapdoodle, it's clear the DFL has lost its way to majority status.
Bakk did his party a favor by questioning its strategy. House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DfL-St. Paul, said in Duluth last week that the Republicans want to create "Mississippi on ice" in northeastern Minnesota. But when the DFL leadership is looking for culprits, it may want to start by looking in a mirror.
Tom West is the editor and publisher of the Budgeteer News. He may be reached by telephone at 723-1207 or by e-mail at tom.west@duluth.com .
