A state transportation bill introduced last Friday includes a gas sales tax that would help road improvement funds keep pace with inflation, an idea that has the strong support of transportation backers but is likely to face stiff resistance in an election year.

Hundreds gathered for the afternoon rally held in the rotunda to push back against the recent introduction of bills in both chambers to legalize same-sex marriage. The rally was held at the same time House and Senate members were holding floor sessions.

In advance of Friday’s special session, Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders put their signatures to a set of written terms and a spreadsheet for disaster relief for northern Minnesota. Following a couple of weeks of scrutinizing the proposed financing, lawmakers agreed to $167 million for flood and wind damage in northern Minnesota, a figure that falls $27 million short of Dayton’s initial proposal.

State Rep. Mike Beard barely survived a GOP endorsement challenge on Saturday in House District 55A. Beard faced a backlash for his support for retention elections of judicial contests. There were also DFL conventions in Districts 2 and 4.

Though serious debate on a bonding bill remains weeks away, legislators and administration officials are already weighing their wish lists with an eye toward setting priorities for a capital investment package that is bound to constitute half a loaf for both sides.

The Republican transportation chairs in the state House and Senate plan to charge into the 2012 legislative session with the beginnings of an effort to take away the Metropolitan Council’s traditional role in overseeing transit.

State agencies have submitted their preliminary requests for construction projects that they would like to see funded in preparation for a bonding bill during the 2012 legislative session

After a seven-month standoff between DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature that produced an unprecedented three-week government shutdown, the state budget impasse came to a rapid conclusion this week as the House and Senate worked through the night on Tuesday to pass a set of budget bills during a one-day special session. Dayton responded just as quickly, signing the legislation in a ceremony at his office at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The agreed-upon "framework" is based on an approximately $35.5 billion spending offer GOP leaders presented to Dayton on the eve of the shutdown, which the governor re-presented to them — with added conditions — on Thursday. But there remain many questions about the particulars of the agreement.

Republican legislators have zero interest in Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposal to raise $1.8 billion by increasing income taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents. That much is abundantly clear after months of fruitless debate between the two sides over how to close the state’s $5 billion budget deficit.