Legislative Evaluation Assembly of Minnesota

Six members of the Minnesota State Senate have been honored in the Legislative Evaluation Assembly’s 2015 Report on the Minnesota Legislature. Two legislators received an honorable mention.

Honorees: Senators Bruce Anderson, Michelle Benson, Dan Hall, Mary Kiffmeyer, Branden Petersen, and Dave Thompson. Honorable Mention: Senator Ortman; Representative Drazkowski.

The Relationship between Quality and Quantity

Press Release by LEA President John Augustine

Do More Bills Getting Votes Lead to Better Legislation?
“Paradoxically, the answer appears to be yes,” notes LEA President John Augustine. “One of the most commonly-used sayings in our culture is ‘quality, not quantity’. However, this trend of pushing more new law into fewer bills is not producing better results.” The increased reliance on omnibus bills hurts accountability, as it provides legislators with more cover to vote for bad policies in bills that also contain some things that have value. It also gives more power to a small group of leaders, because these bills almost always end up in conference-committee negotiations and get to the floor late in session. Members lose opportunities to push for amendments to make the legislation better in the event it reaches the governor’s desk, or to override a governor’s vetoes made after the end of session. Crafting bills with so much packed into them also increases the chances of stalemate and special sessions to settle budgetary disputes. The accountability problems created by these huge omnibus bills are magnified even further in special session, when the legislature simply convenes to ratify the products of closed-door negotiations, without much media scrutiny or citizen input through committee hearings. Continue reading →

The Sunlight Foundation has released an update to its state lobbying disclosure report card, evaluating each state on disclosure of lobbyist activity and compensation, expenditure transparency, expenditure reporting thresholds and document accessibility.

Based on Sunlight’s criteria and rating system, Minnesota earned a “C.” California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin each received an A. At the bottom of the list was Florida, Nevada and West Virigina which received Fs.

See Scores of All States Here

The Grim Results of Unchallenged Control of State Government

Contact: John Augustine (651) 398-9316 (Discussion on 1280 Radio)(Discussion on the Sue Jeffers show)
president@lea-mn.org

Honorees Announced

Eleven members of the Minnesota House of Representatives have been honored in the Legislative Evaluation Assembly’s 2014 Report on the Minnesota Legislature. Six legislators received an honorable mention.

Honorees: Representatives Mike Benson, Bob Dettmer, Steve Drazkowski, Sondra Erickson, Tom Hackbarth, Jerry Hertaus, Ernie Leidiger, Jim Newberger, Joyce Peppin, Cindy Pugh, and Duane Quam.

Honorable Mention: Senator Bruce Anderson; Representatives Daudt, Dean, Howe, Loon, and Myhra. Continue reading →