Pawlenty cuts more than 50 projects from bonding bill

Posted at 11:53 AM on March 15, 2010 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor, MN Legislature, Tim Pawlenty

Gov. Pawlenty announced today that he cut $330 million in projects from the bonding bill. Pawlenty signed the bill into law but line item vetoed more than fifty projects from the bill. In his veto letter, Pawlenty wrote that the bill spent too much and didn't focus on his key priorities. He also said Democrats should work with Republicans if they hope to put forward another bonding bill.

DFL legislative leaders say they have no interest in putting forward another bonding bill. They say Pawlenty's decision to line item veto projects from the bill means fewer construction jobs will be available.

Higher education, most notably the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, took the biggest cut. Funding for the civic center expansions in Mankato, Rochester and St. Cloud was also eliminated.

I'll post the governor's veto letter soon.

Update: Here's the veto letter.

One side note. There has been some confusion surrounding where and when Gov. Pawlenty took action on the bill. I'm told he line item vetoed the bill from his St. Paul office on Sunday night. He is back in Florida today vacationing with his family and speaking at an RGA fundraiser. I'm told no tax dollars paid for his trips (Alex Conant, a spokesman for Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC, says the PAC paid for the trip).

Update: Pawlenty's spokesman, Brian McClung said there was an error in calculating the price tag of the bonding bill. Here's his message:

Our staff double-checked the final bonding number after the Governor's line-item vetoes are factored in and discovered one error. A project that was vetoed was listed in the general obligation (G.O.) bonding category when it should've been in the trunk highway bonding category.

Therefore that project should not have reduced the overall G.O. bonding number.

As a result, the correct G.O. bonding figure, after the impact of the Governor's line-item vetoes, is not $680 million as listed in the line-item veto letter. It is actually $686 million or $1 million more than the Governor's recommendations from January 15.

Comments (2)

VACATIONING DURING SESSION?

WT$*%^...

Excuse my french, but that's got to be the highest sign of disrespect of an entire branch of the government I can imagine coming from another branch. He's the bleeping governor!, and he won't even stay in town to be around to negotiate during the legislative session? Even if only to say "No!" and wave his little red pen at everybody?

This guy is beyond redemption.

Posted by Michael | March 15, 2010 1:30 PM

Thank you Governor Pawlenty for showing some fiscal responsibility. At least someone in our government can to it. We will miss you when you are gone. The Democrats have completely lost any sense of fiscal discipline.

Posted by Brian | March 16, 2010 12:28 PM

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