Ed Finance bill heads to Gov with veto proof margins

Gov. Pawlenty was scheduled to attend a forum called "Crisis in Education" in Washington DC on Wednesday morning. He canceled the trip so he could continue budget talks. It appears that the actual crisis could be to his signature Q-Comp program. It's getting the funding axe in the Education Finance Bill that is now headed his way.

The House passed the bill 97 to 12. The Senate passed it 55 to 10. Gov. Pawlenty's spokesman issued this statement:

"Tonight, the DFL walked away from negotiations. Instead, they charged ahead to do what they do best - raise taxes, irresponsibly increase government spending, and throw out accountability measures.

"That's unfortunate because Minnesotans would benefit from the property tax relief and other tax cuts we were fighting for as part of the overall budget negotiations. We intend to use every tool at our disposal to ensure Minnesota's budget is balanced, taxpayers are protected, and state government lives within its means just like families have to do every day.

"The DFL education bill stops our nation-leading program to pay teachers for performance and revokes other key education accountability measures."

What's missing from the statement is that a large number of Republicans voted for the Education Finance bill.

We'll see if the House GOP can stick together and protect the governor's veto (Senate DFLers already have a veto proof margin in the Senate). If not, the gov will see veto overrides on a Transportation Funding package and an Education Funding Package this session.

We may be moving to DefCon 5 pretty quickly here. If we're not there already.