Editor's Column
by
Tim Benjamin
Since Access Press is a
monthly paper, I can
hope that by the time you read this issue, summer will really be
here and the long, hard spring will be over. Let’s keep our
fingers crossed that the tornadoes that hit Hugo so severely will
be the worst of our Minnesota summer weather, and that the town will
recover soon from that sudden and hard disaster.
Believe it or not, the legislative
session ended on time. No special session—at least so far! There was some initial stir-up with
the governor’s lieutenant governor falling asleep at the wheel
as the transportation commissioner and being removed from that position.
The new commissioner has a background in engineering, which will
be very helpful, I would think, in running that kind of agency.
I believe this year marked
the first time in his stint as governor that Governor Pawlenty has
lost his veto. His veto was overridden by a few Republicans voting
along with the Democrats on tax issues. It seemed, though, that most
our lawmakers were happy with the outcome of the session. In front
of the cameras, at least, they were shaking hands and smiling at
their successes. But even those who are happy this year seem concerned
about what will happen in the 2009 session, since many of our debts
were covered by budget reserves and those monies will not be there
for what is expected to be at least a $1 billion deficit in 2009.
My district representative, Alice Hausman, was very successful in
her struggles with the governor and his about-face on the financial
backing of the light rail transportation system.
I wasn’t at the Capitol as much as I would have liked during
this session, but it sure seemed to be kind of quiet. I’m sure
some of our disability advocates would argue that it wasn’t
a quiet deal at all, for they got no sleep during the late night
sessions. I hope readers of Access Press will join me in acknowledging
the outstanding contributions of our local disability lobbyists and
the Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. Let’s
thank them for all their stressful and sleepless months, informing
and educating the legislators on what is most needed in the community.
Anne Henry of the Disability
Law Center has written this year’s end-of-session
review. Thanks Anne, as always, for your
excellent contributions.
Kim Kang of Pacer Center has news
that I’m not sure how to
analyze. The legislature continued funding for the Special
Education task force, requiring them to compare state law to federal law and
to identify in which areas the state goes over and above the federal
mandates. That report will be due at the next legislative session.
Kang also explains the hard work of some key legislators and the
true need in this election year to seek out and vote for like-minded
legislators to keep special education funding at the highest levels
possible. Special education is for those individuals who would truly
have difficulty being successful without guaranteed educational opportunity.
Thanks, Kim, for all your efforts.
Many of the Health and Human
Services cuts that were expected, and that we wrote about in the
April edition of Access Press, were not enacted. Health-care advocates
were pleased (and some were shocked) when the two percent cost-of-living
raise for PCAs was not eliminated and so many other expected cuts
were avoided. As in the 2003 session, I wonder, how much the upcoming
elections had to do with the postponement of some of these funding
cuts. Well, we can hope that a national single-payer insurance plan
will soon be put in place by our new president. Then maybe some of
the cuts can be unneeded, with new national funds for what are now
state health programs.
Lance Hegland and Bret Hesla have both moved on and left their positions
as marketing manager and assistant editor here at Access Press. I
want to thank them both for their outstanding contributions.
I will miss the camaraderie in the office that Bret brought, and
all of us will miss his outstanding journalism skills in the content
of the paper. Bret has taken a position coordinating a coalition
of groups working to the benefit of the border lakes region of Minnesota
and Ontario (which includes the Boundary Waters). He'll still be
officed in Minneapolis and we can all be thankful for that. Lance's
ability to see and analyze the bigger picture and drive us in those
directions will also be missed. Lance wants to dedicate more of his
time towards pursuing his educational goals.
I wish them both the best! ![end of story bullet]()
