Boy oh Boy! The next two weeks will be fun in the legislature!

Yee haw!

(I applaud this decision.)

This is great news for the taxpaying citizens of Minnesota. T-Paw will now be forced to address genuine cuts in the areas that really need it, and the Democrat legislature will be forced to accept them.

Huzzah for the MN Supreme Court!

Hold on your wallet. The "tax and spend" special interests are slobbering for more of the peoples money.

It's going to be chaotic. On top of everything else, another wave of foreclosures are hitting us, and the governor has stopped governing in order to campaign full time.

"We're cutting everything with the exception of military, public safety and K-12 schools," Pawlenty said. "Nothing is immune." (BusinessWeek)

Maybe Pawlenty should resign ala Palin so that someone who isn't running for president on the tea party ticket can bring some sanity to the conservative side of the budget debate.

If Pawlenty doesn't cancel his scheduled trips to Iowa and New Hampshire and stay in St. Paul to deal with this mess, he has no shame.

The good news is our government works. The checks and balances built in by our wise founders were intended to keep any one branch of governement from Taking on too much power or misusing their power. It worked for us whatever party we may be affiliated with. It shows one person cant take over authority given to the legislature by all the people of the state.

This comes as no surprise. I’ve been saying since day one that anyone with an even a rudimentary understanding of civics knew he overstepped his authority. Which is to say that Governor-in-Exile Tim Pawlenty doesn’t have a rudimentary understanding of the basis for his own job.

I do hope he is the Republican candidate for president – then we’d be done with him.

No new taxes and an even bigger deficit?? Trouble ahead.

ok, I know it will take a while to sort this out, but what happens to the other cuts? Am I right this ruling only applies to the diet cuts?

Tim Pawlenty and his no new taxes pledge helped get us into this mess.
There is no way you can balance this budget
by just cutting, you also need some tax increases, preferably
income tax, the only fair tax.

I was surprised by the 4 to 3 decision of the court. It sounds as if we have three justices who do not appreciate the constitutional separation of powers and the sneaky way Pawlenty tried to usurp constitutional separate of authority.

In any event, it is no monarchy or king for Minnesota. Pawlenty the despot cannot leave Minnesota too soon for me.

In my view, Pawlenty had a sadistic desire to cause suffering among those most in need -- those with disabilities and the mentally ill.

That said, the Democrats in the legislature need to restrain themselves. They simply give way too much money to special interests. When we need to focus on basics, the legislature gives a windfall to the arts. When the recent oil spill alerts us, loud and clear, of the need for green energy and conservation, the legislature thinks about spending money not on energy related improvements but on a stadium. We need green jobs, not stadiums.

I am guessing a stalemate at session end, Pawlenty declaring he will not call a special session until the actions to be taken are agreed upon, a shutdown July 1, and no new taxes.

It's election year...

The Court ruled wisely. The debate must have proven so close, in view of the narrow statutory grounds, in contrast to a sweeping constitutional decision so many of us desired.

Justice Page's concurrence speaks to higher constitutional values we must embrace to restore our self-governance and put money in its secondary place.

The three dissenters gained their seats by Governor Pawlenty's appointment. By their dissent, they signal support of a statewide monarchy in the governor's mansion, a monarchy of oligarchs, by oligarchs, and for oligarchs, that rests on corporate money, bleeds laborers dry, bullies the Legislature, and cows the Courts into starving submission. May they be turned out for retirement with all deliberate speed, that the Court and the Governor may once agains serve the PEOPLE, AND NOT MAMMON.

I predict the longest special session in state history during which nothing much will actually get done as the standoff continues between King Timmy who, in pursuing his vain (in both senses of the word) presidential hopes, will refuse to ratify the will of the majority of the population of Minnesota who elected this legislature (and never voted for Timmy).

A state government shutdown is quite possible, since Timmy, will even be likely to refuse to sign off on continuing resolutions to keep the government operating. He will feel justified if not delighted in doing so because it will punish all of those people who have gotten in the way of his greater ambitions. This shutdown will likely include the state judicial system. (I hope Chief Justice Magnuson has good security).

By the time Timmy is done acting like a petulant child, he will have successfully sullied the reputation of the Minnesota Republican Party for a couple of generations to come. The Republicans in the legislature could prevent that, but of course they won't. They'll follow him down the dark, stinking rat hole he's leading them into without so much as a whispered protest.

Betting this is no joy at DFL headquarters today, post decision announcement. Every group statewide is gearing up to make a push for their cause. Now the DFL legislators get to tell the groups "no" instead of blaming it all on Pawlenty. If they tell the groups "yes" and pass tax increases, they get to deal with an electorate that's in a lousy, anti-incumbent mood. A lose/lose unless very delicately handled.

This is an example of careful what you wish for. Pawlenty was the one who previously had shouldered the responsibility for the unallotments. Now the DFL will be under the lights.

Although, this could be a great opportunity for the DFL candidate Speaker Kelliher to show leadership by making extremely difficult budget choices. This would allow the voters the chance to see if she is up to the responsibility of being governor. This is one of those critical moments that a candidate should use to make an impression with the electorate.

If only the Independent Party hadn't muscled their way in and drawn votes away from Hatch, we would not be looking at the mess His Majesty Pawlenty has made. We must have Instant Run-off Voting--NOW.

I watched the budget hearings last year—apparently unlike some of those who have commented here. I watched the legislature work hard to put together a balanced budget, all the while being lied to and/or blown off by Pawlenty's staff and representatives, conscious every day of the pain they were causing but trying to make it fair. I don't know if last year's budget is still a possibility, but I wish people would look at it and realize that there was no tax-and-spend extravagance and wasteful use of our scarce resources then, and I doubt that there will be any of that now. Please, quit reading headlines and listening to talk radio and find out what is really going on—and then become part of the solution instead of just another cynical addition to the problem.

The unallotment case opens the door to bold change that neither the DFL nor the Republicans have, to date, demonstrated the necessary courage or integrity to champion.

One bold move is the creation of a state bank like the Bank of North Dakota (BND). BND has the backing of the full, faith, and credit of the state as an arm of the state, not a private entity behind an official facade like the Federal Reserve. Like the Land Bank of Pennsylvania in colonial days, BND serves as the depository for all local governments in N.D., issues low interest loans, and remits the interest to the state treasury. BND backstops some private loans. BND issues student loans. BND came into existence after WWI to provide relief to N.D. farmers and workers who were being fleeced by Minneapolis banks and grain merchants. The affluent amongst us who shudder at the thought of any taxes may find a BND for MN a way out of the present crisis. The current N.D. Governor and next U.S. Senator, John Hoeven (Rep.), served as BND's president in the 1990's.

The second change is instant runoff voting for all single-winner state executive offices. Never in Minnesota's has has the Governor's Mansion had an occupant elected by fewer than a majority of the electorate for three straight elections, except this present era beginning in 1999. Even though he was a minority governor, Governor Ventura governed more effectively and balanced four budgets with two parties fighting him all the way.

In contrast to Governor Ventura, I see Minnesota as the most ill-governed I have ever seen in my 49 years under the present incumbent, from unmitigated mercilessness and rank cynicism in budgeting and revenue collection, shamelessness over the 35W bridge collapse, and a decimated, underfunded judiciary that makes a hollow mockery of the state constitution and vitiates the obligations of due process, equal protection, and justice with all deliberate speed -- and not with crushing extra filing fees.

The problems of this administration will remain, until the last Pawlenty judge reaches 70 years old. One exception is the current Chief Justice. He cast the deciding vote and wrote the majority opinion in the unallotment case. As Pawlenty's one-time partner at Rider Bennett, he is the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Beckett to Henry II Pawlenty -- a one-time pal of then-Prince Hal who got his job by his pal, but grew up and into his serious job. It is a loss to the state that Chief Justice Magnuson is leaving in June, 7 months before Gov. Pawlenty leaves.

Instant runoff voting (IRV)will produce statewide elections whose winners will be the first candidates whom the electorate will accept as their public servants, not survivors of mudslinging, bloodletting donnybrooks. Instant runoff voting puts a premium on principled campaigning and a heavy price tag on attack politics. Coupled with reduction in the cost of mass communications and public financing of elections, IRV truly works.

When Gov. Pawlenty presses his presidential run, may Mayor Ed Koch's explanation for his greater vote score in his mayoral election over opponent Bella Abzug in her home congressional district be the explanation for Gov. Pawlenty's tepid support in his home state: his neighbors know him.

As for the DFL, do not expect any change from the DFL so long as it is invested in the two-party status quo and the mindset of abuse at the hands of the right wing.

Rebecca: The "special interests" the Democrats work to protect are the people who are poor, elderly, unemployed, homeless, low-wage workers, workers whose unions (their only defense against unfair employers) are under attack, children attending the public schools and their teachers, college and university students, staff and teachers.

The "windfall" for the arts is money from the new Legacy bill funded by sales taxes in order to raise money desperately needed to protect our sources of drinking water, state parks, hunting and fishing areas, historic structures and other elements of our shared history, and - yes - the arts, an indispensable component of any real civilization. It is not money from income or property tax collections.

The Bank of North Dakota, a 1930s Depression creation, also writes most of the mortgage loans for the state's home buyers and, unlike most banks, holds the loans until they are paid off.

No securitizing or selling and re-selling mortgages to successive investors. And almost no defaults or foreclosures.

A central socialized bank might be beneficial for the taxpayers of every state!

Fabulous! He's been stopped in his tracks! He has such nerve! Interesting that he is actually in Minnesota. That's unusual. For some very strange reason, he thinks he is presidential material. He never was but this brouhaha has put an end to any of his aspirations.

Rochester, Minnesota's criminal justice system is in dire straights secondary to cuts in state money to expand the jail, and provision of yet another judge for hearing cases in a timely fashion. If that cannot be guaranteed, felons are released back into the population. Good work Tim!! Presidential, my foot!

It would seem that with the decision, it is quite clear that "pathetic" can be applied to the behaviors of more than one branch of state government.