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Another legislative session is slated to begin next week, and already there’s signs it could be another tumultuous session.

The power in both the House and the Senate remains unclear as special elections are called to fill one House seat and one Senate Seat.

Meanwhile Minnesota Republicans on Monday sued over the timing of the late-January special election for the House seat, saying Walz should have waited longer to schedule the race.

The DFL has argued that Gov. Tim Walz acted within the law to make sure the seat doesn’t remain vacant longer than necessary.

Some legislators are even talking about not going to St. Paul in the first few days of the session if there is no power-sharing agreement in place.

While we agree that special elections have left a lot of uncertainty in the structure for both chambers, the situation cannot stall the progress of the session until everything is fully finalized.

There is much to do and never enough time to get it done — or at least that’s what it seems.

Regardless of the current state of affairs, we remind legislators that taxpayers are paying the bill for them to be there, and it’s the taxpayers who should be at the forefront of the legislators’ minds in the coming session.

The taxpayers in Albert Lea are facing a staggering $80 million price tag for a new wastewater treatment plant, much of which is being required by the state.

These are prices that continue to rise the longer the project goes on.

This is just one of many major local needs that has continued to get passed over in recent legislative sessions.

We encourage you to share your other priorities for the session with our local legislators, Sen. Gene Dornink, R-Brownsdale; Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea; and Rep. Peggy Mueller, R-Austin. Their contact information prints on Page 7 of every weekend issue of the Tribune.

For everyone’s sake, we hope this will be a productive session.