Study generates ideas to make good Legislature better

St. Paul Pioneer Press
ROGER MOE CHRIS GEORGACAS
March 2, 2006

Upon his election as the first speaker of the state House in 1857, John S. Watrous told his colleagues, "let us lay it down as an axiom, that all of our time here should be devoted to some useful purpose, that all our actions should be directed to the attainment of some good."

One hundred fifty years after Watrous offered that sage advice, following a string of special sessions and an unprecedented partial government shutdown, the public has become increasingly frustrated with the Minnesota Legislature. And many Minnesotans have started to ask to what "useful purpose" has the Legislature devoted itself recently?

In response to concerns about the current state of Minnesota's legislative process, the Center of the American Experiment created a bipartisan Task Force on Legislative Reform to analyze the inner workings of the Minnesota Legislature, diagnose current factors that impede progress and effectiveness, and recommend reforms that would help improve the legislative process. Over the course of several months, we met and sought input from experts on the legislative process and consulted the people who are most familiar with the operations of the Legislature.

Last week, the task force released its report, "Devoted to Some Useful Purpose: Reforming Minnesota's Legislature for the 21st Century." We found that comparatively, Minnesota's Legislature operates as effectively as or more effectively than many state legislatures from around the nation. However, we also concluded that challenges in the legislative process must be addressed if the Minnesota Legislature is to remain a first-class institution that effectively serves the state's citizens.

To that end, we made several recommendations to legislators to address some of those challenges. Here are a few of our recommendations:

The Legislature's perennial failure to complete the budget process on time is at least in part due to a lack of coordination between the House and Senate, between the Legislature and governor, and between the two major political parties. That is why the Legislature should establish coordinated finance committees that adhere to firm deadlines throughout the budgeting process.

Due to an inefficient legislative calendar and lack of statutory deadlines throughout the budget process, there is often no sense of urgency to successfully complete a session's work. To help solve that problem, the Legislature should devote the beginning of budget sessions to legislative training and preparation. In addition, the Legislature should consider counting special session days in which the budget is being finalized against the total number of allowable legislative days. This could help facilitate timelier conclusion of the budget process.

Over the last few years there has been a less collegial and more partisan atmosphere at the Capitol. To help create a more collegial environment, legislative leaders should find new and creative ways to facilitate and encourage social interaction among legislators, through a conscious rededication by leadership to bipartisan interaction.

Too often, legislators are not initially well-equipped to perform their new roles, whether as a caucus member, caucus leader, or committee leader. To better prepare legislators, legislative leaders should institute an extensive training program for all legislators and legislative staff.

The vast majority of legislators are eminently qualified and dedicated, but changes should be made to ensure the Legislature continues to attract our state's best and brightest. Therefore we encourage the legislators to consider a number of structural and political reforms that would attract and retain high-caliber legislators.

(We encourage legislators and citizens to read a more in-depth list of recommendations at www.americanexperiment. org.)

The goal of these reforms isn't necessarily to make the process more efficient but instead to make it more effective. After all, as the general public sometimes forgets, the slow, deliberative qualities of the lawmaking process are strengths in the legislative process.

It is no coincidence that our report was released just days before the gavel convened the 2006 Minnesota legislative session. We hope it gives citizens an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the fundamentals of our state government and legislative process. And it is our hope that legislators devote this session to a useful purpose by giving this report their serious consideration.

Moe, a former Minnesota Senate majority leader, and Georgacas, a former Minnesota Republican Party chair, were co-chairs of the Center of the American Experiment's bipartisan Task Force on Legislative Reform.