Pawlenty sends another letter

Posted at 2:42 PM on May 13, 2009 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)

Gov. Pawlenty sent a letter to DFL legislative leaders telling them he was disappointed that they were passing budget bills "without a viable proposal to pay for them." He also told them he's available to negotiate an overall budget deal.

Here's the letter.

Comments (2)

*sigh*

The Governor continues to pretend that he is disconnected from the issue of closing the budget gap. The tone of the letter suggests that it's just not his problem. It's not too late for him to abandon his grandstanding and actually negotiate but it would seem he is betting on a shutdown as the ultimate cash saving strategy. If his mother was in one of those nursing homes getting funding cut would he hold the same position?

Posted by mnguy | May 13, 2009 9:42 PM

It's an old negotiating strategy: Don't look like you're eager to talk. Pawlenty has been using this strategy throughout his second term. During most of his first term, it seemed like Dean Johnson was the one with the "not my problem" attitude while Pawlenty and Sviggum were the frustrated parties.

One aspect of this I haven't seen anyone mention is that DFL control of both houses actually makes Pawlenty's job easier in some ways. When control of the houses was split, the Senate DFL budget and House GOP budget had to be reconciled in conference committee before they could be passed on to the Governor, and Pawlenty couldn't just leave the House GOP Caucus to figure the compromise out for themselves while he attended fishing openers and hit the national talk show circuit. He had to be actively engaged in negotiations. Now that the DFL controls both the House and the Senate, Pawlenty can afford to hang back, smile amiably, shrug and pass all the hard work on to the lege.

Posted by Chris | May 13, 2009 11:32 PM

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