A Tenuous Legislative Consensus in Minnesota Has Collapsed Over Tax Increases
As St. Paul Goes ...
By KIRK JOHNSON
New York Times
ST. PAUL, May 16 — John Berns and John Benson were swept into the Minnesota State Legislature last fall in a midterm election that promised an end to the state’s polarized partisan politics.
Their adjoining State House districts west of Minneapolis are much alike — fiscally conservative, socially moderate-to-liberal — and the two men tended to vote alike too, each crossing party lines to support moderate positions on bread-and-butter issues like education and the environment.
But with the legislative session now in its final days, Mr. Berns, a Republican, and Mr. Benson, a Democrat, say the vaunted rise of the political middle has taken it on the kisser. The legislative consensus, a tenuous bridge of middle-ground Democrats and Republicans, has collapsed over tax increases on the wealthy, college tuition incentives for illegal immigrants and raising the state’s gasoline tax.
“This whole session is about who can hold onto that pivot vote in the middle, and now no one has it,” said Lawrence R. Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota.
(Continued here.)
By KIRK JOHNSON
New York Times
ST. PAUL, May 16 — John Berns and John Benson were swept into the Minnesota State Legislature last fall in a midterm election that promised an end to the state’s polarized partisan politics.
Their adjoining State House districts west of Minneapolis are much alike — fiscally conservative, socially moderate-to-liberal — and the two men tended to vote alike too, each crossing party lines to support moderate positions on bread-and-butter issues like education and the environment.
But with the legislative session now in its final days, Mr. Berns, a Republican, and Mr. Benson, a Democrat, say the vaunted rise of the political middle has taken it on the kisser. The legislative consensus, a tenuous bridge of middle-ground Democrats and Republicans, has collapsed over tax increases on the wealthy, college tuition incentives for illegal immigrants and raising the state’s gasoline tax.
“This whole session is about who can hold onto that pivot vote in the middle, and now no one has it,” said Lawrence R. Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota.
(Continued here.)
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