Pawlenty threatens bill that limits unallotment

Posted at 3:42 PM on February 5, 2010 by Tim Pugmire (1 Comments)
Filed under: MN Legislature, Tim Pawlenty

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is warning legislators not to mess with his unallotment authority.

Last session, the Republican governor used his executive power to make unilateral spending cuts and solve a budget deficit when he couldn't reach an agreement with DFL legislative leaders. Pawlenty is appealing a recent court ruling that blocked part of his budget fix.

Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul and Rep. Lyndon Carlson, DFL-Crystal, have a news conference scheduled Tuesday to discuss their proposal to limit the unallotment authority granted to the executive branch. Pawlenty sent a letter today to House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and all members of the legislature threatening a veto.

"To be clear, I will veto any bill presented to me that attempts to repeal, limit, or in any way reduce executive branch authority to balance the state's budget through executive action, unless such legislation has been previously agreed to by me," Pawlenty wrote.

Comments (1)

I shouldn't be surprised, but this is unbelievably arrogant of King Pawlenty. Who does he think he is?!?! I hope Democrats go ahead with this and milk it for all it's worth in the media. Minnesotans don't seem to mind heirarchies, but I don't think they'd like knowing that the governor thinks he's some kind of Overlord Czar.

Posted by Jamie | February 5, 2010 5:42 PM

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