By Dan Dorman, State Representative

The end is in sight!

Today, I will return to the Capital for what I hope is the end of the 2005 legislative session.

It is no secret that I am the most vocal critic of our House Republican Caucus.

It is my belief that we are dominated by the metro legislators and the Senate DFL is dominated by the urban crowd.

Here is a perfect example.

Under the Senate tax bill, the City of Minneapolis was going to get $15 million of $86 million. The House Tax bill provided no LGA funding. In the negotiations over the past few weeks the House Caucus was fighting for more excess levies that our area does not have the property tax wealth to pass and property tax relief for the metro area in terms of more transit funding.

But when pushed, we did accept $46 million in LGA spending but demanded that the current formula be used except for cities under 5,000. The Senate had proposed modifying the formula. So the result is the House Republicans delivered to the city of Minneapolis $17 million of a smaller $46 million appropriation.

At the end of the day, I will vote for the bill since it does have the Albert Lea Local Option Sales tax provision in it.