Recently the Legislature held off on offi cial meetings for a week for the annual Easter/Passover break. Over the years, this has become a time when we can assess the progress made so far. Facing a huge $1.2 billion deficit for the current biennium, I expected the session to be especially difficult and contentious.

While the decisions are difficult, I’m pleased to report that, unlike Washington, D.C., the level of contentiousness has been well within the parameters of a healthy democracy. There’s plenty of disagreement and spirited debate, but on the whole, discussions have been respectful, thoughtful and even informative.

Under Minnesota’s legislative system, there’s a “long” session, from January to the third week in May of odd-numbered

years. It reviews and sets a two-year statewide

operating budget. There’s also a “short session” from February to May in

even-numbered years that’s charged with passage of a capital investment bill and making adjustments to the budget. This year, we’re in the short session and the work is getting done on schedule:

o We passed a capital investment (bonding) bill that was signed by Gov. Pawlenty. While he exercised his right to line-item veto several items, projects that were proposed for our area were left in. To me, this is a testament to the smart, non-partisan work of local officials who put together proposals that “made sense.” It was a pleasure to sponsor bills for area projects that met everyone’s criteria for need, importance and impact.

In addition to thousands of private-sector construction jobs that will result from early passage of the bonding bill, there will be many permanent jobs generated once construction is complete.

o We’re well on the way to balancing the budget for the current biennium. We passed $312 million in needed cuts in a number of state agencies. The plan is similar to the proposed budget released by Gov. Pawlenty in February, but with less than half the cuts to local aid. This should ease pressure on property taxes over what had been proposed by the governor.

o We passed much sought-after tax credits for “angel investors” and other job-creation provisions. The Angel Investor Tax Credit is a bipartisan proposal that passed both houses of the Legislature last year, but was vetoed when it got caught up in end-of-session wrangling over the budget. Unlike the capital investment bill that gets ground broken this summer, this bill is more about long-term investment and job growth for Minnesota.

When the Legislature convenes again we’ll still have work to do on a number of issues. We’ll have to reconcile the rest of the budget, keeping an eye on the effect of recent federal changes to health care. There are also a number of policy bills that need to be addressed. But both the tone and the level of bipartisan cooperation has been helpful to our progress so far and I’m hopeful that it can continue to a swift and complete conclusion to the 2010 legislative session.

In the meantime, I hope you and your family enjoy Easter and the return of

spring to Minnesota.

State Senator Dan Skogen, 303 State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155-1606, E-mail: sen.dan.skogen@ senate.mn , Phone: 651-296-5655.