My extra 5 cents (or, what the bishops want from the Legislature)

First off, the Legislature overrode Pawlenty's veto of the transportation bill by one vote. Six House Republicans voted for the DFL-supported bill. Pawlenty's not pleased with what he called "a whole bucket of tax increases." Drivers will notice the 5 cent per gallon increase at the pump. So, I'll be paying 80 more cents when I put 16 gallons in my Buick. That does add up, but so do Starbucks gande lattes, at $3.20 a pop.

The thing is, there's no money. The February forecast will be unveiled Feb. 28, and analysts are expecting it to be grim. We're in debt, and the way we make money is by increasing the way the state gets money — taxes. However, so many things are demanding financial assistance — good things, like programs that help people in poverty and support education.

But taxes can realistically only be raised so high. And these things aren't the type of things that are bonded. It's not a good idea to put milk and cereal on your credit card because you don't know when you'll pay it off.

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Some of the Minnesota bishops met with legislators and Gov. Pawlenty last Wednesday to share their priorities for the session. It's a good time to meet with legislators because it's early in the session, said Chris Leifeld, the director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. However, it's also too early to get a full picture of this session's political landscape, he said.

The bishops — Archbishop Flynn, Archbishop Nienstedt, Bishop Pates, Bishop Kinney (St. Cloud) and Msgr. Grams (New Ulm diocesan administrator) — planned which issues they wanted to discuss with Gov. Pawlenty and the legislative leaders. They addressed embryonic stem cell research, the education tax credit, housing issues, increasing minimum wage, repealing the Minnesota Family Investment Program family cap and the question of using the language "domestic partner" instead of "spouse" in legislation.

"I would characterize [the meeting] as very engaged," said Pete Noll of MCC. "There was good listening from both directions. Of course, no promises were made or anything . . . but there was good interchange, a good responsiveness."