With Governor Pawlenty Around, Who Needs The Legislature?

When the Minnesota Legislature began its session in January, their mission was to trim down a $4.6 billion deficit, the biggest in state history. After the final gavel sounded amid much partisan bickering Monday night, the deficit was still there.

It wasn't for lack of trying. The DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor party)-controlled House and Senate passed bills that would have raised billions by raising taxes on the wealthy, credit card companies, and those who purchase liquor. And both times, they have been (or soon will be) vetoed by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty, with no chance of an override or a special session to change things.

But the budget will be balanced anyway, and to do that, the Governor plans to go over the bills with a fine-tooth comb and veto everything in there that smacks of tax increases. With a Governor like that, who needs the Legislature? Presidents would love to have that kind of power.

This is not the first time Pawlenty has taken advantage of a weak-willed Legislature to mold the state's budget in his own image, and it won't be the last. See, his constituency is the "no new taxes" crowd bent on running Minnesota into the ground, instead of the people who live here and have to pay for the consequences of his actions. He also wants to prove how "presidential" he could be in case he wants to run for the White House in 2012. But Pawlenty is going to have problems if he decides to stay home and run for a third term as Governor.

With the spending cuts Pawlenty plans to make, he's betting Minnesotans can get along just fine with fewer police, libraries, and other social services. That's a lot to ask for in an economy like this one, with people losing jobs left and right. But that's the way it's been ever since he took office.

As for the Legislature, they don't seem to have learned much about the dangers of partisanship from their Washington brethren, if at all. Despite a Democratic majority, they are still at the mercy of a man who can't seem to get it through his head that times have changed, and his policies must change along with it. Sound familiar?