Blunt Pawlenty message: 'No special session, no government shutdown'
All that talk of civility between the governor and the Minnesota legislature a few days ago?
Forget it. The undertone of growing frustration and anger was evident this afternoon.
First, Gov. Tim Pawlenty vowed that he will use the power of line-item vetoes and the funding unallotment process to make sure that there is “no special session [and] no government shutdown.”
Pawlenty said he’s still looking for ways “to find common ground’’ with the Legislature but failing that, he’ll use his executive powers to balance the budget: He’ll sign the spending bills approved by the DFL-controlled Legislature that cross his desk and then go to work on balancing the budget.
He zeroed in on Local Government Aid and the Health and Human Services budgets as areas for major cuts in the omnibus bills that cross his desk. He also said that higher education and K-12 education will take hits. He also predicted that his plan would lead “to significant layoffs” of public employees.
Pawlenty said this has been “a contingency plan” he’s been contemplating for some time, but had hoped there would be a way to find “compromise” with the Legislature. As he has all week, Pawlenty pointed to a letter he gave to legislative leaders that he says was filled with compromise. That letter was quickly rejected by DFLers, who said it showed no real compromise at all.
It was the rejection of that letter -- in which he proposed that he’d cut the size of the revenue bond he’s proposed and give up on the idea of creating a budget reserve -- that led him to this new position.
“I want to be clear as to where this is headed,” he said. “No special sessions. No shutdowns. This session will be over at midnight [Monday]. It’s time for politics as usual to come to an end.”
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher reacted calmly to the governor’s strong threats with a letter to Pawlenty.
“I would like to take this opportunity to once again invite you to come before the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy this evening to discuss your latest budget offer,” she wrote.
“According to your press availability this afternoon, your latest offer to solve our budget deficit implies that you will sign the budget bills sent to you by the House and Senate, and then proceed to unilaterally unallot portions of the state budget.
“As you clearly have been planning this course of action for some time. Minnesotans have a right to know how you plan to proceed with your unallotment strategy. It is best if this offer can be fully vetted in a public forum. … I await your reply and look forward to continuing our budget negotiations in a manner that is transparent to the public.”
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Comments (31)
God I love the Guv. After four months of nothing the DFL deserves this one. Can anyone name a job that doesn't get punished for not meeting a deadline. Life is tough get your work done on time or pay up
Can anyone name a job that doesn't get punished for not meeting a deadline?
Legislator.
"It's good to be king."
And here I thought we had a democracy in Minnesota, where the three branches of government were supposed to work together and work out compromises while offering checks and balances each to prevent the other from taking over completely.
Turns out I was wrong. Tim Pawlenty is the KING! And doesn't have to answer to the citizens of Minnesota at all! He only has to answer to the national Republican Party and the Tax Whiner's league!
And this after a new poll shows that the majority of Minnesotan's would already prefer that he not run for a third term.
On behalf of the majority of the citizens of Minnesota who think you're on the wrong track, Governor Pawlenty, I can only say "Thanks!" for responding by declaring yourself to be the new Dictator who rules, at his own behest, over every aspect of our lives as you see fit, no matter what we think!
Now we know why we were growing increasingly uncomfortable with your leadership! Given the opportunity, you have proven that your instincts have nothing to do with democracy but tend toward fascist dictatorship! You've clarified everything! We finally see who you really are!
"He’ll sign the spending bills approved by the DFL-controlled Legislature that cross his desk and then go to work on balancing the budget."
Are there spending bills on the governor's desk now?
The legislators did send a bill to the Governor. He chose to veto the bill, so it seems he, also, bears some responsibility for the budget impasse. It appears that his strategy now is to demonstrate to the public what happens when state revenue falls short: services must be cut. Certainly this is a bold new initiative for the GOP; frankly I am impressed that the Governor is giving up on his shell games and accounting gimmicks. It is time for him - and his party - to start demonstrating what they mean by smaller government. Another election is coming up soon enough - and the voters will have a chance to decide which party is proposing positive solutions for Minnesota. Will it be the small government Republicans, cutting education funding and laying off state workers (who's work will presumably not get done)? Or will it be the tax & spend DFL, who is asking that people pay for the services they receive?
If I were to place a bet, it would likely be on the voters choosing to go back to the good old days of the Minnesota Miracle.
Let's lay off this arrogant governor.
I am no conservative. However the Governor is doing his job as it was designed.
When all the Democrats do is state "lets create yet another tax bracket", he is saying No.
Please don't tell me we are "investing" in the state. What happened to the other 6.75% of my income.
Local governments are full of waste and corruption. Their claims that they cannot cut spending is hollow.
The Governor is doing his job. I did not vote for him, but I am glad he is vetoing this nonsense.
It is good to be the King and if you don't like it you should have ran someone against him that could have won. Will anyone notice the cuts? The DFL will say the Guv is cutting eleventy billion dollars from everything so lawlessness and pandemics will obviously spread everywhere, but will anyone really notice. What is the total percentage of the cuts (removal of built in increases) 5%.
"Will anyone notice the cuts?"
Joe, you have succinctly summed up the Democrat legislatures worst fear.
Leftists love to spew dire warnings about the disasters awaiting "real people", but they know that the real disaster is targeted towards them.
When "real people" see how trimming billions of dollars from the government's has had little to no discernible effect on their daily lives, they will have wrested away the Democrat party's most potent weapon.
Anyone remember the chaos that ensued during when the public employee unions "shut down" government in an attempt to extort more money from us?
Me neither.
We in MN need to weaken the office of Governor by statute and/or constitutional amendment, so if a Pawlenty happens to us again, he will not be in position to do so much harm.
Speaking as a public school teacher, we absolutlely notice the cuts. I noticed them when I was laid off in 2000, 2002 and 2003. The last one stuck and I had to relocate. I notice them now for 2009-10 when I am told that my class sizes will increase and I see my colleagues and friends laid off. My students and their families notice the cuts when fees of all sorts increase and limit their ability to participate, effectively turning activities into pay-as-you-go programs that then discriminate based on income.
I am no fan of this democratic legislature, nor am I a fan of the governor, who clearly has made his decision: national ambitions trump serving Minnesota. Perhaps a deal can be reached; perhaps it will not sting as much as alarmists want us to believe it will. But please do not pooh-pooh the impact of cuts. They're real, and you are just blessed to be in a position not to feel them.
Good for you.
So now Minnesota's Governor is showing just how far to the right he is willing to move - into the dictator zone!
The problem all along has been that the Governor CAN'T negotiate. Not in the sense that he doesn't know how, although I sometimes question that assumption. But rather in the sense that he has nothing with which he can negotiate.
He long ago tied his own hands by signing the "No New Taxes" pledge in order to get his party's nomination. That basically left him without much of anything he could negotiate with.
Oh, I suppose he could cut his own salary and those of his Commissioners. He might be able to cut back on staff and expenses. But really, is there honestly anything else he could use to negotiate???
No wonder he doesn't come before the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy. He would have nothing to discuss.
As for those who will notice the cuts, I'm sure my friend and her fellow residents in a nursing home will when the time it takes for someone to come in and take her to the bathroom goes from a half hour to and hour or more.
Teachers will notice more kids in school who are sick and getting sicker and making other kids sick.
Workers at minimum wage jobs will notice more of their fellow employees who are sick and getting sicker. Oh, I forgot, the slackers who are loosing their health insurance don't have a job. No, as the old saying goes, they have three!!
And I'm sure none of you will notice when the fire department comes with only half a crew to put out the fire at your house.
Why can't the teachers union step in and use some of the millions it spends each year on lobbying and advertisements to retrain displaced teachers. A job bank if you will, funded by union dues. Not to pooh-pooh anyone but nobody has 100% job security and if you work in the public sector you should understand that your paycheck via legislative grace. Additionally k-12 per pupil spending has increased every year sense 1996 (5,190) to 2008 (8,700), where does it go? Yes good for me
What happened to the reduced costs of government and public services the the governors tax cuts were supposed to have created? If my state taxes have gone down, why have my property taxes gone up? Because things cost more. That is a reasonable expectation of costs. Could government perform more efficiently? Absolutely, especially this state's government. It's emblematic of failure and dysfunction. I just feel it's a throwaway answer to prescribe cuts as the only means of balancing a budget in lieu of revenue generation. It's too simplistic, one in which the only motivation is political and not responsible. Certainly none of us would turn down the opportunity to earn more to get of a financial hole.
As far as the job security comment, I fully recognize the job insecurity everywhere- I am lucky to be in a profession where I do have safety nets. Good for me. My heart aches for anyone in any sector of the economy who lose jobs, especially when it's so obvious that this most recent wave is due to unchecked and unregulated greed. Which brings me to the lobbying issue.
I'd be thrilled if my union could stop lobbying, as long as I get a quid pro quo that all the private sector interests that demonize unions will stop lobbying too. Unfortunately, that will not happen. In this system, it is lobby or die.
Wow, some of these comments makes me want to reread the bill of rights to find the health care is a right clause. Is it between 4 and 8?
And I am confused. I was under the impression that you might have something constructive to discuss. Also, when did I mention health care?
This isn't responsible, it's unilateral, and I question whether it's legal. It's certainly unprecedented and an abuse of unallotment. Pawlenty is utterly unable to negotiate so he'll dictate. If his action is legal, he's found a big loophole. If it's illegal, it's time to look into the state's impeachment procedures.
And those of you saying you won't notice the cuts, maybe you don't know when you're being affected, or maybe as long as YOU aren't affected, then damn everyone else.
Joel, you sound like a reasonable guy; perhaps you're a really good teacher, too.
If you are, you are getting screwed.
When genuine teaching professionals (I know you're out there) suddenly wake up and realize that a pack of worthless trade labor union hacks has hijacked their profession, to ride on their coattails, they can start to regain the respect, *and* the financial compensation they deserve.
But as long as some incompetent who should have been selling used cars can bump a skilled, enthused teaching professional out of the building because he's been warming a chair longer, people like Joel(?) are out of luck.
K-12 Education consumes 40% of the state budget, and that doesn't count the billions in federal money it sucks down each year. And in return for that literal mountain of cash, parents of college bound kids find themselves paying for remedial math and English classes.....and they are the lucky ones.
If you're a teaching professional Joel, fight for your profession. Take it back.
In the mean time, I call on the Governor to put K-12 right at the top of the cuts heap...a large portion of that money would have just showed back up in the hands of an EdMN lobbyist anyway.
"....maybe you don't know when you're being affected..."
Did you mean to write that? It translates to:
"Since you're not smart enough to know what's good for you, we'll tell you."
Ladies and Gentlemen, your Democrat party at work "For you".
Save the schools, nursing homes and hospitals!
In other words, let's take care of all those government employees that got us here. The Dems.
Talking points. Scare tactics. We are starting to see right through them.
Government is good. We appreciate all they do.
I would appreciate it so much more if they could lay off the folks still paying the bills. The taxpayers. Those of us still fortunate enough to be working in the private sector, tighting our belts, living within our means, cutting back, struggling, and going without in these economic times.
I just don't think the majority of those empty seats in St. Paul will ever get it.
Kudo's to #9 above and Thank God for our Governor.
Stick with it Guv!
Eric Ferguson writes
"And those of you saying you won't notice the cuts, maybe you don't know when you're being affected, or maybe as long as YOU aren't affected, then damn everyone else."
On the contrary, I think voters will notice the cuts, but after one biennium of pain, we'll be done with this 'no new taxes / drown gov't in a bathtub' ideology once and for all. Short term pain for long term gain.
Thomas,
Thanks for the advice. I have very carefully considered both the unionized and non-unionized scenarios for my profession. The teachers unions are preferable to the alternative, and it's not even close. The reason I feel this way is because the more I look at the alternate model, more based on business and marketplace principles, I am appalled. I would NEVER trade what my union representation has done for me, to exchange it for the kind of leadership that a Bernard Madoff, Tom Petters, or some other corporate criminal would provide. Even in a for-profit model, I am certain that we as teachers would still be on the low end of the hierarchy.
And, please understand, at no point have I claimed to be underpaid, nor have I moaned about being disrespected. I am still excited about my career path, after 12 years, and will maintain it until I retire (however long that may now take...)
I don't want the debate to be polarizing, and I wish your side of the analysis of the budget crisis could be accomplished without demonizing unions. I don't understand that hostility and anger. I work within Education Minnesota and I have yet to meet Jimmy Hoffa's twin. Who I do meet are incredibly dedicated, ethical, and responsible adults who have realized that we have to look out for each other because others won't. My union is imperfect, and that's OK; so am I. I am working to improve it too, to be more reasonable and progressive in changing times. I fight for my profession every day, and I fight within my profession.
This gets to the heart of my concern over the budget, and it's a concern with both parties. Can we please move beyond the blaming, name-calling and stigmatizing? Can we get something done? When my posts, self-indulgent as they are, draw only glibness or generic Hannityspeak, that tells me something. When the governor can only repeat "no new taxes," I crave a three-syllable word. I guess I just hope we can do better.
By the way, I am an excellent teacher.
I see the misinformation crew of Thomas Swift and Joe Johnson are shilling here for the governor. Yesterday they were shilling for Bachmann. Must be a nice change of pace.
Because Pawlenty is unlikely to run for governor again, why don't the Republicans just run a three-foot-long stainless steel screw with the words "NO NEW TAXES" engraved on it, cast in solid concrete for governor is 2010? It would be just as interesting, just as articulate, just as capable and just as concerned about the welfare of the people of Minnesota as Pawlenty is.
Thomas Swift
My daughter graduated from Spring Lake Park High School a year ago. And she graduated with honors and as a presidential scholar. She graduated with 30 college credits and college trigonometry under her belt. I agree that not all kids are getting the education they require, but the top students today are at least twice as well educated as I was when I graduate from high school 30 years ago. For you to say that the "lucky ones" – assuming you mean the best students – need remedial education all you are doing is pointing out who the real dummy in this discussion is.
Steve Titterud: Yes, we need to weaken the governorship to avoid another Pawlenty.
I sugggest amending Article VIII of the State Constitution to allow impeachment for the infliction of harm to the citizens of Minnesota resulting from injurious policies or the aggrandizement of power to the Executive Branch.
Other ideas?
At present, the gov has to commit a crime. I personally feel the deaths that will result from cutting off health care for tens of thousands of people is a crime. It's just not covered by a statute.
Jeremy, there was no Presidential Scholar from Spring Lake High school last year.
http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/pdf/2008/05/semifinalists2008.html
Or the year before that:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/psp/2007/semifinalists.html#minnesota
Or the year before that:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/psp/2006/semifinalists.html#minnesota
In fact, according to the US Dept. of Education, no student from Spring Lake park high school has ever made it to the semi-finals.
Misinformation; or did you get confused with which school your daughter attended?
Oh, pardon me. She was not Presidential Scholar with capital letters. She was the recipient of the Presidential Educational Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence. All I know is it was signed by the president least likely to have clue what academic excellence is.
This just shows how out of touch Gov. Pawlenty is with Minnesotans. MN sided with the DFL because they believe in our future, with the cutting healthcare for the underprivledged and cutting K-12, Pawlenty clearly does not. I DO respect him for taking the leadership rolebecause he is putting himself under heavy political pressure. However, he has effectively killed any chance he had at reelection because he is greatly out of step with Minnesota's political climate as the the DFL majority grows each election year. With the number of democrats growing we will not forget this come 2010.
"All I know is it was signed by the president least likely to have clue what academic excellence is."
OoooKay.
Not the Presidential Scholar award "with capital letters" (is that kind of like Oak Leaf clusters?), but some award signed by a guy you feel is a dolt...now I see where the confusion lay.
You must be so proud.
My comment was simply in response to this patently false statement you made.
" And in return for that literal mountain of cash, parents of college bound kids find themselves paying for remedial math and English classes.....and they are the lucky ones."
And now you're mistdirecting people away from thst utter stupidity by picking on a college student.
What a bully.
Jeremy, according to the Minnesota Department of Education, more than 25% of public school students that apply for admission to the University of Minnesota and/or a MNSCU school require remedial coursework in mathematics, reading and English.
And yes, considering that our largest public school districts are sporting failure to graduate rates topping 40%, those are indeed the lucky ones.
You decided to use an anecdotal story to disprove that *facts*, which was a bad idea to begin with. A quick check told me that your story wasn't true.
If you are going to use anecdotes to argue a point, it's in your best interest to make sure they are factually accurate. If it's not, it's going to have a very debilitating effect on your ability to convince anyone to accept your point of view, and tossing ill considered, ad hominum pap into the mix to cover a failure ("signed by the president least likely to have clue what academic excellence is") only earns mockery.
I'm not "picking on a college student"; I'm tearing your completely flawed rhetoric to shreds.