Lawmakers seek ways to make help more consistent

Thanks to the recent November economic forecast, which revealed that a $1.3 billion budget surplus is headed to Minnesota’s schools to pay down the state’s $2 billion-plus K-12 aid shift, lawmakers could simply tout the good news and pass a budget for the next two years that leaves the state’s school funding structure in the same shape it’s been in for more than a decade.

Close on the heels of Tuesday’s election, members of the new DFL House and Senate majorities gathered behind closed doors on Thursday to elect their leaders. As expected, the minority leaders who helped steer Democrats back into control — Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook — were elevated to House speaker and Senate majority leader.

Left for dead in April, the Vikings stadium bill sprinted to passage in the session’s closing days. What happened?

After adjourning in the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Minnesota House of Representatives plunged ahead with the bittersweet biennial ritual of retirement speeches from departing members.

It was one of those votes no one wanted to take. The state’s new maps dropped DFL senators and allies John Marty and Mary Jo McGuire into Senate District 66, forcing activists in the area to pick between them at a recent endorsing convention.

Minneapolis DFLers lost another legislator last weekend. Freshman Rep. Marion Greene, who replaced former DFL House Speaker and gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher in the chamber, fell in an endorsement contest against DFL House colleague Frank Hornstein.

The most anticipated political event of the year at the Capitol — the unveiling of court-drawn state legislative and congressional districts that will be used for the next decade — arrived at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Greiling's announcement is the latest in a string of DFL retirements that have seen some of the party's most seasoned lawmakers leave the Capitol, including Sens. Larry Pogemiller and Linda Berglin.

Keith Lester’s first day as superintendent of Brooklyn Center Schools was Sept. 12, 2005. The next day, voters shot down a proposed property tax levy increase to help fund the schools. If Lester thought at the time that it was a temporary setback, he was wrong.