Iron Range legislators responded to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's unallotment threat with disappointment and said it would be disastrous for northern Minnesota.

Of course, those legislators are DFLers.

Rep. Loren Solberg, DFL-Grand Rapids, told the Mesabi Daily News that the move is an example of the governor’s unwillingness to negotiate.

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said cuts to health and human services would be “devastating” for the Iron Range.

“People are going to understand the pain that this governor is going to inflict on some of the most vulnerable people in society and on the lower and middle classes of Iron Range,” he said. “It is going to fall right back on people’s property taxes, which is the most unfair tax there is.”

Pawlenty said final decisions haven’t been made, but that cuts would fall on health care, social services, K-12, higher education and Local Government Aid.

Although the Legislature would cut the Grand Rapids hospital, for instance, by more than $250,000, that’s nothing, compared with the more than $6.5 million the hospital would have faced under Pawlenty’s original plan.

Rukavina said the governor will have the authority to line-item veto nursing home and hospital disbursements.

“Already our hospitals and nursing homes up north that take care of our senior, vulnerable members of our society are in trouble,” he said.

Faced by more cuts, rural nursing homes and hospitals might be forced to close.

“What’s going to happen to 70-year-old parents that have a 50-year-old mentally ill son to take care of?” Rukavina asked. “He’s done a really bad job as the governor, and now the people are going to see how really badly they’re going to be affected by his decisions.

During a Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy meeting following the governor’s announcement, House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, told Finance Commissioner Tom Hanson he was “astounded” the governor would consider cutting police, fire and emergency services that are funded by Local Government Aid.

Sertich called the political approach of the governor “extreme, rash, and irresponsible.”

Sertich said that the Legislature had already cut millions in a search for compromise, while the governor hadn’t “moved an inch.”

“This is not a game to me, this is not funny,” he said to Hanson. “This is about people losing their jobs and their health care."