Katie Sieben, Sharon Marko and Denny McNamara don't always agree, but that didn't stop them from meeting together last week with local media to discuss the recently concluded Legislative session.
Of course, Marko, DFL-Cottage Grove, and Sieben, DFL-Newport, have more to agree upon due to their common political affiliation, but they share many of the same goals with McNamara, R-Hastings, who represents District 57B in the House.
"We are from districts that are middle of the road districts," said McNamara, explaining the trio's ability to reach across political boundaries on some projects.
Since the residents of south Washington County have many of the same goals, the three local legislators have learned to work together.
"We see a lot of the same things, just through a different lens," said Marko, the state senator representing District 57.
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Given the current political climate, getting together to tackle key issues gives each of the three an advantage.
"It is critically important to work both sides of the aisle," said Sieben, who represents District 57A in the House.
Despite the anger expressed by citizens over the need for a special session and a temporary state government shutdown, Marko, Sieben and McNamara found some positives to the end result.
"I think the product is a good one," McNamara said.
Along with a bonding bill that was passed earlier in the session, the resulting health and human services bill and increased education funding of 4 percent each of the next two years are considered the biggest successes.
The health and human services bill ended up cutting more than $300 million from the budget, but it did not drastically affect working Minnesotans with low incomes.
"Our solution was to cut waste, not people," Marko said. "Ultimately, we ended up with a finer product."
The ability to increase school funding was the most encouraging result, according to Sieben, and it will help make up for recent cuts to education funding.
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While all three were encouraged by the health and human services budget and increased education funding, they differed on the proposed state-run casino.
Marko and Sieben were against expanding gambling, while McNamara said he believes profits from gambling need to be better distributed between the state, tribal casinos and Native American tribes.
McNamara was against the minimum wage increase because it didn't take into account a tip credit for the food service industry, while Sieben and Marko were pleased with the increase.
A lack of a transportation bill, which was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, was one of the disappointments of the session.
"I am definitely disappointed we didn't pass a transportation bill," said Marko, stating an increase in the gas tax is equivalent to a user fee to pay for infrastructure needed to ease congestion.
Although she was pleased adjustments have been made which should alleviate the possibility of eliminating bus routes in south Washington County, Marko hopes in the future it won't be necessary to fight to maintain the routes on an annual basis.
