Gov. Mark Dayton recently advocated for a special legislative session in which he hopes to help Iron Range steelworkers who have been laid off.

It seems reasonable to call a special session. About 1,000 steel workers have lost their jobs because taconite demand is low and plants have closed or cut back. Another 540 are expected to soon lose their jobs at another plant. Unfortunately for many of those workers, the unemployment benefits they’ve earned would run out soon — before the regular session starts in March.

Dayton wants the Legislature to extend the unemployment benefits period to help the laid off workers pay their mortgages and other monthly bills.

Whether the special session will happen is up in the air. Only the governor can call a special session and the GOP has in the past resisted his call for special sessions. And some GOP lawmakers have said they will only support a special session now if Dayton agrees to allow the PolyMet mining issue to be debated in the special session.

The scientific findings about the proposed Iron Range mine are fiercely debated and Dayton has the final say about whether PolyMet gets a state permit. Dayton said he wants to determine if the mine’s economic benefit is worth the environmental risks — risks he wants to make extremely small.

House Speaker Kurt Daudt wants Dayton to step aside from making any decision about the state permit for PolyMet.

Dayton will almost certainly not call a special session unless all the ground rules of the session are agreed to ahead of time. That’s because while he can call a session, only the lawmakers can vote to end a special session. He has correctly portrayed the inclusion of the PolyMet issue as a distraction that shouldn’t be brought up in a special session.

It will now be up to Daudt and the GOP to decide if there is a special session to extended unemployment benefits for those who’ve lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

 

— Mankato Free Press, Nov. 30