Political Notebook

Recount confirms Murray defeats Brown

My Austin Post-Bulletin colleagues Kay Fate and Jim Troyer sent in a report this morning that recounts in Mower and Freeborn counties confirmed that Republican Rich Murray defeated two-term DFL Rep. Robin Brown. Here is their report:

A mandatory recount between District 27A candidates Rep. Robin Brown, DFL-Austin, and Murray, the Republican challenger, showed no change in the Nov. 2 results in Mower County. And 22 miles away in Albert Lea, Freeborn County officials found no vote changes either, giving Murray a 57-vote margin.

Freeborn County was the difference for Murray.

In Freeborn County, Murray received 6,889 votes compared to 6,474 for Brown, a difference of 415 votes. Murray trailed Brown in Mower County's tally by 358 votes.

Freeborn GOP leader Al Arends noted that the District 27 vote was close and that Brown’s strong showing in Mower County was predictable. “Mower is more Democratic,” he said. “We are more of a swing county.”

Noting that the Albert Lea High School teacher has held the seat for the past four years, Arends said, “It’s good to get it back.”

Mower's recount of the legislative race took less than two hours Monday morning. It's the third time this election season that local ballot counts have been checked — and found to be 100 percent accurate. Focus then shifted to Freeborn County where it took seven hours.

Taxpayers League scorecard not kind to Roch Democrats

The Taxpayers League of Minnesota has released its annual legislative scorecard. The scores are based on whether or not lawmakers voted for legislation deemed by the organization to be unfriendly to the taxpayer. In many cases, that involves whether or not a lawmaker supported bills with tax increases.

The report card did not have a favorable view of most DFLers — especially in Rochester. On a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 considered a perfect score, no Rochester Democrats received a rating above 13. In southeast Minnesota, the lawmaker with the lowest score was Sen Steve Murphy of Red Wing who netted a 0. 

Rep. Gene Pelowski of Winona was the highest ranking Democrat with a score of 47. That is in large part due to his voting against the DFL tax increase proposals. 

The report heralds Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former House Minority Leader and potential gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, as the "2009 Heroes of the Taxpayers" for standing up against tax increases.

Here is a look at ratings for Southeast Minnesota lawmakers. To look at the Taxpayers League's full list, go here.

Senate

Sharon Erickson Ropes, DFL-Winona — 21

Ann Lynch, DFL-Rochester — 7

Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing — 0

David Senjem, R-Rochester — 57

Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin — 14

House

Robin Brown, DFL-rural Austin — 7

Greg Davids, R-Preston — 80

Randy Demmer, R-Hayfield — 80

Steve Drazkowski, R-Wabasha — 87

Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing — 87

Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester — 13

Kim Norton, DFL-Rochester — 13

Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona — 47

Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin — 27

Andy Welti, DFL-Plainview — 13

Wind tax compromise headed to governor

Last night, the House and Senate OK'd a public finance bill filled with several local tax provisions. Among them is provision that would take money away from schools districts with wind turbines and instead give it to townships. Otherwise, beginning July 1 all of that wind tax money for schools would have gone into the state coffers.

The state's wind energy production tax currently divvies up the money as follows: 80 percent to counties, 14 percent to townships and 6 percent to schools. Wind farms pay this tax in lieu of property taxes. But the Minnesota Department of Education and lawmakers backed a law change in 2007 that would strip that money away from schools beginning July 1, 2009.

Getting the wind tax money restored for schools has been a tough sell — especially among metro area lawmakers without wind turbines in their districts. But the winds appeared to be changing this session, with more support for keeping the wind tax local — see this early blog post.

Austin area lawmakers ended up negotiating a compromise with DFL leadership to have the school money go to townships.

Rep. Robin Brown, DFL-Austin, said that while she had hoped to be able to get that money back for schools, she is thrilled that it will at least be staying in the area. She said this compromise makes it less likely the wind tax revenue will get picked off in future years.

"I really think that had it stayed at 6 percent directly to schools, it would have been vulnerable over the years," she said. "I really think that the dollars are probably much safer."

The bill still needs the governor's signature.

Swap school dollars for flood mitigation?

During a House floor debate on a $200 million capital works bill, Preston Rep. Greg Davids made a move geared towards getting more dollars for flood mitigation.

The local Republican proposed an amendment that would have taken funding from four MnSCU projects that vetoed by the governor last year and instead have put that money towards flood mitigation projects. That proposal comes as lawmakers are still discussing the serious aftermath of the recent floods in the Red River Valley.

Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, argued against the amendment saying the House will likely pass another bill to aid flood victims. But it makes sense for the state to wait to see what federal flood dollars will be available.

Davids amendment won support from Austin Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Jeanne Poppe and Rep. Robin Brown. Austin is among the cities hoping to get some of the nearly $13 million in flood mitigation grants. The Senate public works bill has twice the flood mitigation dollars available.

Ultimately, Davids' amendment failed by a vote of 81-52.

Winds changing on turbine tax for schools?

Two years ago, the Minnesota Department of Education proposed taking away a tax benefit from wind turbines that goes to local schools. State education officials advocated deducting money from this wind energy production tax from state aid given to schools in these wind-rich areas. This wind tax money would stop flowing to districts July 1 of this year.

When the change was proposed, the argument was made that this wind tax is unfair for school districts that don't have wind turbines in their area. Lawmakers approved the change in 2007.

But as southern Minnesota schools have stepped up pressure to have this money restored, it appears the state's education department is backing down. Department spokeswoman Christine Dufour said the department is "currently in the process of reviewing the legislation."

In addition, Gov. Tim Pawlenty  "is open to discussing the removal of the deduction for school districts with the Legislature," according to his spokesman Alex Carey.

Here's a story I wrote for today with more details. Here's a link to Austin Democratic Rep. Robin Brown's bill aimed at restoring this wind tax funding boost.