St. Cloud Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency

There are less than 30 days left in Minnesota’s 2016 legislative session. Equally important, the session started 47 days ago. Guess how many bills have been signed into law. Go ahead, guess.

As of Friday, four. Just four.

Granted, nobody expects legislators to be so efficient as to adjourn early. But with so many important issues facing the state — plus a $900 million surplus and all House and Senate seats on the fall ballot — Minnesotans should expect more productivity and less partisanship, especially knowing the session is the shortest in history amid a Capitol reconstruction project.

Instead, the hardest-working employees at the Capitol seem to be those whose job it is to fire off partisan missives about how the Republican House is way out of touch or the DFL governor and Senate don’t have a clue.

Such gamesmanship, while not new, is alarming largely because Republicans and DFLers are very far apart on several high-profile issues.

Big surplus, big split

Look no further than the $900 million budget surplus.

Gov. Mark Dayton put forth his plans for the budget surplus the second week of session. His major spending include: $117 million on tax cuts; $150 million on mental health/human services; $100 million each on rural broadband and racial disparities; $77 million in B-12 education; and $56 million on higher education.

House Republicans released their base plan about two weeks ago. It keeps overall state spending locked in the current budget and seeks to split the surplus between tax cuts and transportation. Specifics remain elusive, but GOP leaders have mentioned tax cuts for military retirees and Social Security recipients as well as cut property taxes for farmers statewide.

The DFL-led Senate offered a plan similar to Dayton’s on April 12.

Regardless, when one side proposes spending tens of millions to $100 million on various programs and the other side proposes zero, it explains why only four bills have passed this year.

Oh, and by the way, there is no legal reason to do anything with this surplus. Just as they did in 2015, legislators could leave it untouched.

Bonding bill

Another gaping gap can be seen in bonding proposals and especially the rhetoric behind them. The Republican plan calls for a $600 million bonding bill. Dayton’s bonding package tops out at $1.4 billion.

When Dayton unveiled his plan in mid-January, House Republican leaders (some without even reading it) immediately declared it unpassable. Earlier this month, when the House GOP plan came out, DFL legislative leaders offered similar uncompromising thoughts.

Of all the partisan gaps visible now, this may be the easiest to resolve. After all, every legislator who is seeking re-election this fall will want to show constituents some form of bonding dollars are going to their districts.

What’s next?

Minnesotans should get a good sense of how serious legislative leaders are about compromising in the next few weeks. Committee deadlines have passed, and major pieces of legislation should start advancing through both the House and Senate, setting up potential conference committee meetings. Amid that process there likely could be those infamous “high-level meetings behind closed doors” involving leaders from both parties.

Of course, the alternatives could be silence, more political bickering or both. The key for voters is to remember in November how these next few weeks make you feel — and vote accordingly.

Your ‘must-do’ list?

Attention Central Minnesota legislators,

With less than a month to go in the 2016 session, the Times Editorial Board asks you to share in 300 words or less your top two priorities for finishing this session.

Is it tax cuts? Transportation funding? Broadband? Cutting state government?