Unallotment Blues. On the last day of the current biennium, there is precious little love for Tim Pawlenty's budget-balancing-by-fiat trick — from Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak taking potshots at the governor via Twitter to Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson releasing a letter (PDF) to DFL legislative leaders stating that Pawlenty's budget-slashing will nonetheless leave Minnesota at least $4.427 billion in the hole by 2012.

Martiga Lohn, writing for the Associated Press, reports on several planned protests, including a "funeral march" to the Capitol, while MinnPost's own Doug Grow documents outrage in the religious community, despite the fact that Pawlenty is perhaps the most publicly religious governor since Al Quie. Their complaint? That the budget cuts primarily affect the poor. "We think God cares about the poor," Grow quotes the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches, as saying: "We believe the churches need to be involved in this."

In the meanwhile, part of Pawlenty's budget-balancing plan remains in doubt. Tim Pugmire of MPR points out that $106 million of Pawlenty's plan relies on Wisconsin agreeing to quickly pay income tax revenue owed to Minnesota; currently, the reciprocity plan allows Wisconsin 17 months to pay. But Wisconsin is struggling with its own budgeting issues, and state officials have yet to agree to Pawlenty's shorter timetable. "If Wisconsin does not come through, then we have another hole in this budget," Pugmire quotes DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher as saying.

Oh, and if you were hoping to get a $50 tax refund for a political donation, today's your last day, because the political donor refund program is another that Pawlenty chopped.

In other tax news, Bill Salisbury of the Pioneer Press reminds us that as of Wednesday, we're going to be paying more at the pump. That's when two taxes increases begin: a three-eighths of 1 percent boost in the sales tax and a 1.6 cents-per-gallon gasoline surcharge. So far, there don't seem to be any Tea Party protests planned, perhaps because Minnesota voters themselves demanded these tax increases to pay for outdoors habitat, clean water, parks, trails and the arts.

These tax increases will raise an estimated $360 million in the next two years, and Tom Meersman of the Star Tribune looks into how some of this money is going to be spent, calling it "by far the largest and longest land conservation effort ever undertaken by a state." Meersman also looks into concerns that future Legislatures might raid these funds to bolster other programs that are experiencing budget shortfalls. The story quotes Paul Austin, executive director of Conservation Minnesota: "It's going to require constant vigilance over the next 25 years to make sure that doesn't happen."

It's hard out there for a wolf: In a story for the Star-Tribune, Allie Shah reports that gray wolves are going back on the "threatened" list in Minnesota, pending court approval, and will be listed as "endangered" in Wisconsin and Michigan. Wikipedia gives an interesting timeline for the Endangered Species Act that shows that the number of animals protected under the ESA steadily grew under every president since the act was introduced in 1973 by President Nixon, reaching its peak under the Clinton (which listed an average of 65 animals per year) and then plummeted precipitously under President George W. Bush. Bush's administration only listed eight animals per year -- almost half the number listed under Gerald Ford and 50 per year less than were listed under George H.W. Bush. A letter from the Center for Biological Diversity points out that this is the sixth time in five years that "a federal government decision to strip wolves of Endangered Species Act protections has been stopped through legal action."

In today's Department of Things You Don't Want to Find in Your Bathroom, Mara H. Gottfried of the Pioneer Press reports on a St. Paul couple who investigated a noise in their house, only to discover a drunk and naked stranger in their bathroom. Although this exact scenario has started many a letter to Penthouse, the St. Paul couple was decidedly nonplussed.

In sports: The Twins returned to the American League last night after two weeks of playing National League teams, and it went, well, poorly. Phil Miller of the PiPress sums up the game in unsparing language: "Kansas City scuffed up Nick Blackburn, the Twins were bewildered by rookie Luke Hochevar, and the Royals breezed to a more-lopsided-than-the-score 4-2 victory."