Pawlenty: I got your leadership summit

Posted at 2:12 PM on August 11, 2009 by Mike Mulcahy (5 Comments)

A couple of weeks ago Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, proposed a bipartisan "Minnesota Leadership Summit" of former governors and legislative leaders to talk about the state's long-term budget problems. He said he wanted to build on past ideas and look to the future.

One person who won't be attending the summit is the state's current top executive Tim Pawlenty. The governor sent a stinging letter to Pogemiller and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher today saying, among other things, that "the state already has an annual 'Minnesota Leadership Summit.' It's called the legislative session and it lasts approximately five months."

Read the whole letter here.

Comments (5)

So yet again, the Governor shows what kind of person he is. He never negotiates with anyone - and frankly I have seen better leadership potential from a prune and lord knows the prune would be more effective for this backup.

Posted by tripleplay | August 11, 2009 4:56 PM

The governor writes a self-serving snarky letter to the DFL and that is headline news at MPR. The mayor of Saint Paul gives a budget speech that outlines some of the damage that Pawlenty's cuts are going to have on city services--not a word on MPR. You really are the all Pawlenty all the time network.

Posted by Ron | August 11, 2009 5:00 PM

Ron, this is a blog. That's why it appears under the heading: Blog.

If you look over at the left hand column of the homepage there's a heading that says: News.

And there's a story there about the St. Paul budget. There was one on the air too during All Things Considered.

Posted by Mike Mulcahy | August 11, 2009 5:10 PM

One thing that concerns me about these 34 new police officers being hired with federal stimulus funds by Coleman (and 13 by Rybak) -- these are one-time dollars. Last I checked, police officers and other public employees require payment for services beyond just the first year. Do either of these mayors have some long-term source of funding for these new hires beyond hoping the economy gets better and new revenues pour in?

I also can't help but notice that if no new revenue emerges, these officers would have to be laid off in 2011 at the latest, right when one of the mayors would -- if his best plans work out -- be vacating the mayor's office for the Governor's mansion.

Posted by Chris | August 11, 2009 6:10 PM

Pogemiller may have promoted the meeting, but he got the idea from former Gov. Arne Carlson.
Over time, I think more and more Minnesotans appreciate the "LEADERSHIP" that Carlson and Al Quie continue to provide. It would be a shame for the meeting not to occur as the group could have many good ideas. Hopefully, Steve Sviggum will not follow Pawlenty's non-lead and participate.

Pawlenty's recent comments about the stimulus seem to be more partisan motivated than supporting the State. Pawlenty's focus seems to be on Today and not Tomorrow. Being in Mankato and reading how 119 workers laid off from Kato Engineering in May would be eligible for the Dislocated Worker Program was good news. Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Dan McElroy seemed to be quite pleased that program will help these workers be retrained for different careers, but Pawlenty was on CNN blasting the stimulus.

Pawlenty seems to have forgotten us.

Posted by MinnesotaCentral | August 11, 2009 9:32 PM

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