It wasn’t a case of everlasting peace, sweet tranquility and 201 state lawmakers singing “Kumbayah” under the Capitol dome back in the mid-1990s when Howard Swenson and Ruth Johnson were first elected to the Legislature.

There were serious policy disputes, sometimes heated arguments and more than one special session to finish the work that hadn’t been completed by the adjournment of the regular session.

But Swenson, now retired, and Johnson, who is retiring at the end of the year, said state government in Minnesota worked pretty well back then. In the last few years, however, it hasn’t.

“Both sides are too locked in and fail to realize that — for the good of the people — there has to be compromise,” said Swenson, R-Nicollet. “... I would say both parties would have to share the blame. You can have different opinions and different outcomes you want to reach. But ultimately, if there’s going to be conclusion, both sides have to give.”

A St. Peter Democrat, Johnson had a unique perspective on the changing House of Representatives because each of her three terms was separated by two-year respites from the Legislature — once after losing a race for lieutenant governor in 1998 and once when she lost a re-election bid to the House in 2002.

When Johnson returned for her second term in 2001, she said the tenor of the place had changed from 1998.

“I was surprised at the level of bitterness and very inflammatory rhetoric in the House,” she said.

There was unmistakable anger during debates, even screaming, that she said was “very disrespectful to the House of the people.”

The ultimate failure

When Johnson returned again in 2005, her initial impression was that attitudes were better. But 2005 was also the pinnacle of legislative dysfunction. It was the year when Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House and Democratic Senate did something that had never happened in the nearly-150 year history of the state.

They delayed, argued, disparaged one another and refused to compromise for so long that the state’s fiscal year ended without a completed budget in place. On July 1, parts of state government shut down because no money had been authorized to fund them — a first in Minnesota history and an extremely rare event in any state.

Longtime lawmakers were embarrassed. Pawlenty said the legislative process was “all gunked up.” Average Minnesotans who rarely paid attention to what happened at the Capitol were disgusted.

A couple of weeks later, the governor and lawmakers reached an agreement during a special session and the shut-down ended. The 2006 session went much better.

But 2005 marked the third straight budget-setting year — and the sixth time in seven — that the governor and Legislature needed to go into special session because they couldn’t finish on time.

Need a little respect