Q&A with DFL State Rep. Frank Hornstein on the 2011 Legislative Session

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: What are your thoughts about the general direction this session is going to go?

Rep. Frank Hornstein: There's no question that the $6.2 billion budget deficit overshadows almost anything. I’m looking for honesty in the majority’s budget, I think it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to balance $6.2 billion without cuts to education, basic health care, nursing homes and hospitals— basic safety net programs that literally keep people alive.

Gov. [Mark] Dayton made it clear, if we can get a budget that doesn’t create significant problems, that doesn’t raise revenue, he’ll sign it. What he’s saying is that it’s dishonest to make those types of pronouncements [about no new revenues] when we’ve already cut to the bone—you can’t do that without setting back Minnesota in profound ways. 

In 2005, we did raise revenue through a cigarette tax, that only came after a special session and a government shutdown. I hope it doesn’t come to that, I hope there will be honesty and that we’ll understand that revenue needs to be raised as well as difficult cuts made.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: You’re in the minority now, how does that change your approach to some of these larger problems?

Hornstein: I will continue to advocate for the issues I’ve always advocated on: metropolitan mobility, energy issues, reducing oil dependence, making sure class sizes are small, and advocating for a fair tax system.

I’ll introduce the bills I’ve always introduced and advocated, being in the minority doesn’t change that. It will be difficult to get those bills passed, there’s no question about it. But we have a Democratic governor, but I do think he'll advocate for some of those policy initiatives. For one, I did a bill that closed corporate tax loopholes for overseas operations, that’s the kind of thing that Gov. Dayton is potentially interested in for raising revenue. The things I’m interested in are the things that interest the administration, which is a little bit different twist for me.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Do you see any chance that any Republicans can be peeled off to support new revenues?

Hornstein: At present, no. But I think once the reality of this budget hits they will be looking for revenue. I’m hopeful that we can all come around and agree and not have to go through this exercise of the special session.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Is it pretty much a confirmed fact that the schools aren’t going to be paid back [after last year's school payment delay]?

Hornstein: We had a shift last session, which already dug us into a hole. We can call it a school shift, but currently it’s a cut. That’s going to be priority one for many of us, to make sure we can hold our schools harmless. There may be some rhetoric from the other side, it’s going to be very difficult to see how one could hold schools harmless and not make extremely difficult and devastating cuts in other areas.

It all comes down to the need to raise revenue, let’s do it in a way that’s fair, that’s honest, that’s progressive. That’s what Gov. Dayton campaigned on, and that’s what I will be advocating.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: And the Minneapolis school district will face it’s own shortfall this year too.

Hornstein: There’s a deficit. And I think the education finance chair in the House, at least, has indicated that integration of other sources of money that Minneapolis Public Schools get is up for discussion in a way that it wouldn’t be with us in the majority. Really advocating for Minneapolis Public Schools is going to be an important part of my work this year.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: What’s going to happen to Local Government Aid [LGA] this year?

Hornstein: That’s another really important issue that, without raising revenue, is going to be a real challenge. We’ve already had devastating cuts to LGA that have led to property tax increases in Minneapolis that have been quite controversial and people are upset with, as they should be.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: I’ve heard some grumblings at the city level about how Minneapolis is the scapegoat for LGA, this idea that in Minneapolis LGA is some sort of welfare for the city. Would it benefit the city not to have LGA?

Hornstein: We’re in the middle of the pack, Minneapolis is not disproportionately impacting the state’s budget. The history of LGA effort at the state level is logical because we’re trying to deal with disparities across the state and have a pool of money to assist local governments and provide property tax relief. Local governments are correctly utilizing that and utilizing it for basic services: Fire, police, infrastrcuture, maintenence. This is really important stuff.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: What about the continued existence [Minneapolis neighborhood funding], like the Neighborhood Revitalization Program [NRP]?

Hornstein: NRP has been supported by the legislature, there’s enabling legislation for that. It’s attracted a lot of vocal opposition. We will need to develop a package with the city and the neighborhoods that will allow these programs to continue to thrive.

What I’d like to see happen is that the neighborhoods and the city will reach some understanding before we do battle here because it’s a different set of issues.
We want to be unified and on the same page with people as we address that issue.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Can you talk about the tone you expect this session, knowing that there will be a lot of pressure to ban gay marriage and take on other sorts of social issues?

Hornstein: They’re hugely difficult issues. I have always tried to model strong principled stands on issues, but at the same time civility. I know we are going to have deeply profound disagreements with the Republicans, this session especially.

This is really a historic session in terms of the budget deficit we’re facing. It’s historic because I don’t think we’ve had Republican control of both houses in a very long time—and we haven't had a Democratic governor in 24 years. But overwhelming all this history is the historic budget deficit coming out of a historic economic recession. There’s certainly the potential to have a lot of polarization and difficulty, but it’s really my hope that we can work through these issues in a way that’s civil and come to some sort of agreement and compromise in a timely way.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Do you have any idea what sort of bills you’ll pursue this year?

Hornstein: I’ll continue to promote transit development, whether I carry those bills or others. One of my priorities continues to be the development of the southwest transit line. I’m going to do legislation that promotes electric vehicles. Maybe [I'll propose] some overall goals in terms of reducing oil dependence.

I’m going to reintroduce my bills around taxation, particularly recapturing the revenue, closing the loopholes when people hide their money in tax statements, and corporations enjoy these loopholes for foreign operations. I’ve carried comprehensive sex education in the past, will probably do something like that again. 

If you look at the bills I’ve introduced in the past several years, I’ll be doing most of those again. Now, will they be heard or will they be enacted, I’m not as confident as I was in the past.

The other side will bring up social issues, I think there will be a strong effort to require a photo ID for voting, which I strongly oppose. There will probably be efforts at eroding a woman’s right to choose and there will be some Democrats who support that, but not enough to overcome a veto. Any effort to override the governor’s veto, we will sustain, no doubt about that. Just like they did in every case except the transportation bill.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Does the aging population in Southwest affect how we deal with some of these issues?

Hornstein: You’ve hit on one of the key issues facing the state right now. That is, we have an aging population we’re not only dealing with healthcare. In my area, transportation, if we go to a roads-only approach—my colleague who is the DFL chair of transportation, that would reflect his vision—then we are completely ignoring the fact that we have an aging population and not everyone will be able to drive. This is just another example of why we need to create transportation choices. If we’re going to stick our heads in the sand and not address those changing demographics, we’re going to be in trouble.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Does development play into this?

Hornstein: Sure. Now you’re addressing one of my high priorities. Sen. [Scott] Dibble and I did a bill last year that asked the Met Council to study how we save energy and money and address global warming by making sure we can plan communities where schools and jobs and housing and transit are all located near each other.

California did a study that said, not only did this save a lot of greenhouse gas emissions and oil imports, but it also saves people money and it also creates a higher quality of life. Schwarzenegger said we don’t want people wasting all of their family time in traffic schlepping from one place to another. How we build and develop and design communities is very important.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch: Where do you see campaign finance going this session, because we did have a Supreme Court decision in Citizens United that impacted state laws?

Hornstein: If anyone thinks that Supreme Court decision didn’t matter, just look at the last election. We had a flood of corporate money, not only at the national level, in congressional and senate races, but also at statehouse races. That had a very big effect and there were some very negative, nasty, awful things that were done as a result of that corporate money.

Also, we lost one of the most important and unique aspects of Minnesota’s campaign system, which is our personal contribution refund. Now people can no longer get small contributions from their neighbors in the $50-100 range and have those neighbors and constituents reimbursed for those small contributions. That really impacts politics in a negative way, that money was taken away by Pawlenty’s unallotment. We have a really toxic mixture of not only more corporate money in the system, but then the ability of individuals and small contributors to have an impact.

Unfortunately that is the trend, it needs to be reversed, it has a corrupting influence. We’ll address it, I don’t think there’s going to be a real appetite from the majority to reverse it, they benefit from it.