The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Editorials

January 12, 2008

Our View — Pawlenty needs to show leadership

Six years into his governance of the state Gov. Tim Pawlenty has certainly gained a national reputation for leadership. But there are many Minnesotans who might be hard-pressed to come up with how he has lead at the state level.

Minnesotans should feel a bit of pride that the political leader of our state should be recognized in organizations such as the National Governor’s Association, and be considered, time and time again against his denials, as a potential vice presidential candidate for the campaign of Arizona Sen. John McCain.

But it’s hard to point to major initiatives he has accomplished at a time states so badly need leadership on major issues like jobs, health care, transportation funding and schools. When asked, the governor will point to what he feels was a major accomplishment a few years back in righting Minnesota’s state budget from a $4.5 billion deficit without raising taxes. Certainly, many can view this as an accomplishment. But there’s also a good number of folks who Pawlenty once described as “victims du jour” who were hurt by the budget cuts of 2005. So, this accounting accomplishment has a somewhat mixed review.

At a recent forum with legislative leaders, Pawlenty offered very few if any ground-breaking initiatives that he can lead on and be successful. He has touted renewable energy initiatives the last two years, but those are kind of no-brainer wins with almost everyone on both sides of the aisle in favor of conservation and renewable energy.

Pawlenty needs to offer leadership on some kind of major initiative that will move the state forward. His recent predecessors had the type of success Minnesota needs. Gov. Jesse Ventura, an independent, though perhaps having half the public persona Pawlenty has, was able to accomplish something governors of both parties took years to accomplish: moving school funding more to the state’s responsibility than unevenly spread over businesses and other property taxpayers. That was 2001, however, and under Pawlenty’s stewardship, the funding is almost back to the uneven unfair system that was broken.

Gov. Arne Carlson, a moderate Republican, with bipartisan support, instituted the system of MinnesotaCare, something that was self funded in part and that expanded health care coverage while keeping costs relatively low and keeping Minnesotans healthy. Pawlenty’s cuts to that program have also turned back some of the successes.

We suspect some taxpayers will be just fine with Pawlenty’s stewardship of the state budget and this “accounting accomplishment.” Still, the legacies of state political leaders have usually been of more substance. Pawlenty has three years left, we hope he can show leadership with something significant at this time of drastic change in our country and state.

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