Governor says Legislature is unlikely to pursue proposed slashing to budget

By Mark Fischenich

MANKATO — Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he’s certain that legislative Democrats won’t permit the kind of cuts in aid to cities that he’s proposing.

And Pawlenty said he’s equally certain that Democrats ultimately won’t pursue the kinds of cuts and tax increases that they themselves proposed in a budget outline this week.

“I cannot believe that Democrats will do what they suggested — in the end,” Pawlenty said during an interview with The Free Press editorial board Friday.

Senate Democrats proposed $2 billion in tax increases, apparently on the income of higher-income Minnesotans, and $2.4 billion in spending cuts that would equally pare most parts of the state’s budget — including K-12 education, the National Guard and law enforcement programs.

But the second-term governor also suggested city officials are unlikely to face the kind of deep cuts in state aid he proposed for the second year of his two-year budget plan. Pawlenty will release a revised budget next week to reflect additional revenue provided from the federal government — which creates a $4.6 billion two-year budget shortfall rather than $6.4 billion.

While that budget will apparently continue to call for the doubling of aid cuts to cities in the second year, Pawlenty doesn’t expect that to actually happen.

“The Legislature’s not going to pass my proposal,” he said, predicting the ultimate cuts would be “half or less than what I proposed.”

That would put the cuts to levels similar to what area cities are expecting for the coming budget year, which already has city councils and administrators looking at service cuts, reserve spending and hiring freezes. The prospect of the doubling of cuts the following year had city officials predicting layoffs of police officers and other public safety staff.

Pawlenty continued to insist that local governments and schools can solve most of the budget challenge they face by freezing employee salaries. That’s an appropriate response in face of the economic crisis facing the state and country, he said.

But Pawlenty is leaning against trying to force a statewide freeze of public employee salaries as part of the budget agreement he will need to negotiate with the DFL-dominated Legislature. While his staff researched the idea and he said it’s possible that state aid to schools and local governments could be tied to a wage freeze, he apparently won’t pursue the idea of mandating it.

“I can rhetorically insist on it,” he said.

Lawmakers and Pawlenty, who continued to say he will oppose any tax increases, have just more than two months to come together on a budget that will fix the shortfall if they’re going to meet the constitutionally established May 18 adjournment date. If they don’t, a special session will be required to pass a budget by June 30 or face the prospect of government services shutting down for lack of money on July 1.

“I don’t think so,” Pawlenty said when asked about the chances of a repeat of the 2005 partial government shutdown that followed an impasse at the Capitol. “I hope not.”