The Minnesota legislative session begins Tuesday. With the death of former DFL Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, the Senate is tied with Republicans and DFL’ers having 33 seats. Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson says the two parties have found a consensus. “Unlike the House, the Minnesota Senate was able to come together on an agreement for some power sharing between the Democrats and Republicans; we’re going to have what looks like 50/50 committees and 50/50 acting Senate president.” In this scenario, Republican Torrey Westrom and DFL’er Aric Putnam will co-chair the Senate Agriculture Committee. Johnson said the budget negotiations are a priority. “If we look forward two years down the road, our forecasters here at the State say that we have a $5.1 billion deficit so unless we take that into account now, in two years we’re going to go right off of a cliff and there will have to be some very, very hard cuts made at that point so we’ve got to be doing this budget with an eye for the future.” Johnson is from East Grand Forks and represents extreme northwest Minnesota. The full interview with Johnson can be found on the Red River Farm Network website.
