MN lege: On Trust Fund $, Republicans don't ever learn

That title is actually misleading, because Republicans did in fact “learn,” last year, that they could get away with this.

Recall last year that the Republican-controlled Legislature approved in its last hours and without public input a bill allowing the state to use about $8 million annually in lottery money from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund to pay interest on appropriations bonds to fund wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure projects…

Much-less-expensive general obligation bonds typically fund projects such as these…

…this session (Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake)) included about $10 million of the $61 million the Senate trust fund bill spends to pay for wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, another Senate Republican bill eliminates 18 LCCMR-recommended projects and replaces them, in part, with $10 million in funding for state parks and trails operations and maintenance. - Dennis Anderson/Star Tribune

Part of this is the GOP positioning itself for now fairly imminent end-of-session showdowns. And part is legislative right-wingers just fucking up everything they touch, same as always. In any case, I don’t presume to know how hard-core Minnesota Senate Republicans plan to be, as far as potentially forcing a special session, with or without a shutdown. I’m sure not putting it beyond them.