Skare: "I was so thrilled I was part of the process"

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 6, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

State Rep. Gail Skare, DFL-Bemidji, represented District 4A, including Bemidji, in the 1997 Legislature.

Skare, 58, lives in Bemidji, is married and has five children. She is a former Beltrami County commissioner, and completed her first session as a legislator.

She is vice chairwoman of the Sales and Income Tax Division, and serves on the Agriculture, Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs and Tax committees.

As a freshman representative, Skare was nominated by her colleagues as one of the top eight new state legislators for her insight into how their decisions would affect local governments. The article appeared in a recent issue of "Politics in Minnesota."

Here are her thoughts on several major issues during the 1997 session:

Session overall:

Skare said she knew it was going to be difficult to figure out the process, and it was. Making matters more challenging, her legislative aide was also a first-timer. So they struggled through the session together, she said.

The most difficult task was learning how to track bills as they progressed through committees, she said. Many bills got lost in omnibus bills, and others were changed so much they were no longer recognizable.

"I was so thrilled I was part of the process," she said. "I never walked into the House chambers without swelling up with a little bit of pride."

Welfare reform:

The Minnesota Families Investment Program, the state's version of welfare reform, is a good program, according to Skare.

The old welfare bill gave assistance in an all-or-none fashion, whereas the new bill proportions assistance according to income, which should help break welfare dependency, she said.

However, she said in a small percentage of communities no program is going to work because jobs are just not available. Another part of the bill which may see changes is the requirement that everybody on assistance must find a job, she said. Some people with disabilities, who simply cannot work, will fall through the cracks, and the state is going to have to deal with them.

Property taxes:

"My impression was that every legislator there saw the need for property tax reform," she said.

And she thinks they accomplished a successful buy-down of property taxes for the time being. The Legislature was able to shift some of the local school district burden from local property taxes to state funding and was able to compress property tax rates for several property classifications.

Higher education bill:

Increases for the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities systems provided in this year's higher education bill were needed, Skare said. But she was disappointed local institutions did not see funding increases as large as the systems as a whole did.

"It's hard sometimes to know how issues at the state level are going to affect people locally," she said.

K-12 education bills:

Skare said she was "very pleased" with the K-12 education bill that was produced in the Legislature's conference committee because it was a better bill than either of the houses had passed individually.

She described the bill, which was finally signed by Gov. Arne Carlson after a special session was needed to pass it, as a compromise. The governor got some of the tax deductions he wanted for education-related expenses, and yet the Legislature did not give way on deductions for private school tuition.

"Maybe a good compromise is when nobody is happy," she said.

Funding increases of $76 dollars per student this year and $79 dollars per student next year were less than for which the state's school districts had asked, but she said the Legislature had to give an increase that could be maintained by the state in years is no budget surplus.

State budget surplus:

"The money went in the right directions," she said of the state's $2.3 billion projected budget surplus.

Between buying down the cost of education for local communities and buying down property taxes for a number of groups, the money was well spent, she said, even though some people feel the way the money was spent will not directly affect them.

"The perception to special interests was that $2.3 billion could've accomplished a lot," she said. "But when you take out a few hundred million here and another hundred million there, no one comes out a huge winner."

Twins stadium:

Skare said she still adamantly opposes using public financing for a new Minnesota Twins baseball stadium.

Of the many contacts she received from constituents, she was told 10-to-1 the state should not pay to build the stadium, and that is how she voted on the issue.

"I don't feel they had the package together, and I still don't think they do," she said of the upcoming special session concerning the stadium issue.