State Sen. Ken Kelash Saw 'Surreal' Special Session

Following the end of the government shutdown Wednesday morning, Richfield Patch caught up with State Sen. Ken Kelash (DFL-Richfield/Minneapolis) to get his thoughts on the final budget, the negotiating process, and how the new spending bills might affect his constituents.

Richfield Patch: Between the time Gov. Mark Dayton called a special session Tuesday and when the shutdown ended Wednesday morning, there was a flurry of activity at the Capitol. What was the special session like from a legislator’s perspective?

Sen. Ken Kelash: It was kind of surreal. There was no ability to do any amendments, and negotiations were kept to a minimum.

All of the issues had been in front of us before, so that wasn’t new. Some of the negotiations brought new language that was better. I think the shutdown produced a better outcome than accepting the Republicans’ [original] budget. There were fewer people hurt by it. I don’t think there were a lot of people in the room who were happy with most of these deals. Especially the tax deal and the higher ed bill.

Richfield Patch: What did you vote for, against, and why?

Kelash: I voted for the bonding [bill], because Mall of America and are a great investment. It helps get public infrastructure ready for expansion there, [which] will be a huge boom to that area. I voted for the pensions bill because it was a good bill that didn’t cost much and saves property tax payers money.

Public safety and courts [bill] I voted for because it was fully funded. Jobs and economic development I didn’t care for. I voted against education, state government bills. The legacy bill I voted for.

Richfield Patch: Were you surprised by any of the voting?

Kelash: It’s interesting that the bill with the least votes was the higher ed bill, and [Republican legislators] had a harder time voting for a higher ed bill—because it didn’t have stem cell research provisions in it—than [they did] borrowing money on the tax bill, which is what I would call payday—borrowing to pay for an increase in the budget.

[The budget deal] was a bad solution. It’s going to put us back for a long time.

Richfield Patch: Some lawmakers, including , have they thought the state's open meeting laws were being violated at the Capitol during the shutdown. In your opinion, were laws broken?

Kelash: I think it happened. There were several Democratic senators I know that wanted to get into negotiations with [Gov. Dayton] and weren’t allowed to. And mostly [weren’t allowed] by the Republicans.

Richfield Patch: How will your constituents, and Minnesotans in general, notice the new budget affecting their lives?

Kelash:  [With] increased porperty taxes for sure. Over the next two years [it's] a billion dollars in property tax increases that we’re talking about. You can count on schools having to borrow money, so that’ll be an issue.

More people who won't qualify will be put on a voucher system who were on MinnesotaCare. The qualifications for eligibiltiy will be much more difficult. [There will be] higher tution for higher ed, so there will be a lot there.

Richfield Patch: What were you pleased with in the budget?

Kelash: The bonding bill will maybe put some construction workers back to work, but that should’ve been done months ago. I think [legislators] did a pretty good job considering that the Senate only met one time on the bonding bill. We made sure we were doing maintenace on the [University of Minnesota] and MnSCU, which are systems that were vitally needed. The U of M got their nanotechnology building, and that will put people to work.

Richfield Patch: What do you think needs to happen during the Legislature's next session?

Kelash: Some of my disagreement with the Republican approach this last session was that they were trying to put in statute policy that changes direction without any transitional processes ... I think there's more time [needed] to plan the transitions. That's something Democrats want to do as well.

Just for example, the different organizations that oversee water, or IT services—every agency has its own. Those kinds of things we’ll be able to work on and be productive, and those are all bipartisan. They got waylaid because of the approach the Republicans had.