Sen. Gerlach relishes Commerce Committee gavel

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Apple Valley Republican new chair of free market-oriented Senate Committee

by T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol reporter

Sen. Chris Gerlach has the gavel of a committee he relishes.

“It’s a lot of topic areas I enjoy – it’s a whole range of things,” the Apple Valley Republican said of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee.

Gerlach is the new chairman of the 15-member committee.

The committee oversees a range of topics, from lesser-known business complexities to better-known areas such as auto insurance and liquor sales.

Gerlach points to auto insurance as a major topic for the committee this legislative session.

Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Brainerd, is carrying several pieces of legislation dealing with no-fault insurance.

“He’ll be doing some battle with trial attorneys – that’s usually the setup there,” Gerlach said.

Gerlach shares Gazelka’s concern that no-fault insurance in Minnesota has failed to deliver the savings promised when adopted back in the 1970s.

“I think that will lower automobile insurance rates for just about everyone in the state,” Gerlach said of Gazelka’s legislation.

Another car insurance bill the committee will explore has been dubbed “No Pay, No Play.”

Currently, about 15 percent of Minnesota motorists drive without car insurance, Gerlach explained.

“Even though it’s against the law, they are,” he said.

“No Pay, No Play” may be one means of correcting this, he explained.

Under the bill, uninsured motorists who get into crashes will still have some coverage.

But they would no longer be able to sue for damages such as pain and suffering, Gerlach explained.

“That’s sort of a challenge to Minnesota residents out there, that you’re not going to be allowed to flaunt the law and cash in down the road,” he said.

Gerlach views the two mandates of his committee, commerce and consumer protection, as anything but mutually exclusive.

“What we’ve got to do is figure out where the balance point is,” Gerlach said.

“We have to decide what’s appropriate for the government to get involved in,” he said.

“Where you draw that line on restraint is going to be the difference between Republicans and Democratic, conservative and liberals,” Gerlach said.

Asked about the role of the Attorney General’s Office in consumer protection, Gerlach said that there always has been a “tug of war” between whether the lawsuit model or enforcement model is the best.

“In some cases, one is better than the other,” he said.

Legislative commerce committees, at least under Republicans, prefer the regulatory actions of the Commerce Department to legal action by the attorney general in consumer protection, Gerlach explained.

“And maybe a little less governing through press conference and lawsuits,” he said.

Where does Minnesota stand in terms of welcoming business compared with neighboring states?

“Depending on what statistics you look at, you can argue the case either way,” Gerlach said.

But Gerlach views the loss of Delta Air Lines, formerly Northwest, and other historic companies as indications the state is struggling.

Taxes aren’t the only factor in where business locates, “but it’s a significant factor,” he said. “If your bottom line doesn’t work, you’re going to find a location where it does.”

Gerlach views his committee as something of a band of brothers in terms of marketplace philosophy.

“It’s a pretty free-market committee,” he said. Generally, committee members don’t like “fencing” – attempts at fencing competition out of the marketplace through government action, he said.

Committee members tend to view the marketplace through the lens of free enterprise and free markets, Gerlach said.

Asked whether nostalgia for bygone decades – often heard at the state Capitol – invites phony comparisons, Gerlach said the world is indeed ever changing. But certain things don’t change.

“What doesn’t change are some basic economic principles: laws of supply and demand; human nature doesn’t change; the idea of how monopoly or pure competition fit into the marketplace,” he said.

“The more barriers we break down, the more free enterprise we have, the better we’re going to positioned for competition, the better our industries are going to be, the more jobs they’ll create, and the more we’ll be put on the path of economic growth,” said Gerlach.

Gerlach, a military veteran, is a businessman.

A clip from the Gerlach interview is posted on YouTube.

T.W. Budig is at tim.budig@ecm-inc.com.