How would you grade Tim Pawlenty's performance as governor?
Posted at 5:00 AM on December 28, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(93 Comments)
Filed under: Politics/Government
After serving two terms, Tim Pawlenty is about to hand the keys to the governor's office to Mark Dayton. Today's Question: How would you grade Tim Pawlenty's performance as governor?
Comments (93)
HITLER REIGNS NO MORE... IF LESSONS ARE TAKEN HERE, INTOLERANCE SHOULD BE FIRST.
WHO GAVE THIS MANIAC POWER, AND WHO DIDN'T TAKE IT AWAY.
WE ARE ALL TO BLAME
A GRADE WOULD DIGNIFY HIS ABUSE,
THE FACT THAT HUMAN BEINGS BECAME VICTIM IS A SHAME THAT WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.
LIKE THE SURVIVORS OF THE TITANIC, THEY SAT BY AND WATCHED MANY PERISH.
I would like to know what the state debt was when tpaw took over compared to what he left us. Can anyone help? Donn
Well we got rid of Tim,as Governor, lets hope we do not see him run for President. Now its time to worry about Bockmen, and what damage she can do from afar. Lets hope she doesn't run for anything. Not even the office she is in now.
Definitely an 'F'. He neglected the infrastructure (35W bridge collapse happened on his watch, after he vetoed increased DOT spending - twice), ruined the state's credit rating by refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy, hurt women and children with his destruction of battered women's shelter funding, and lied about his 'morals' every single day.
Glad to see the back of his cross-eyed, weaselly face.
To answer this question indirectly, based on Mark Dayton's activities the last few days I feel he has done more for Minnesota in a week than Tim Pawlenty has done in the past year or more.
If Tim Pawlenty does run for president, I am sure Minnesotans will immediately let the country know how EVERY SENTENCE he speaks includes criticism of EVERY OPINION other than his own.
His type of negativity, lack of respect, unwillingness to listen & allow people to complete a thought if he does not agree, etc., etc. is what is doing so much damage to this country.
He was Governor in MN.? REALLY?
Did we miss that day he was?
D-
I do not give him a F because he did one good thing for Minnesota. He chose not to run again!!
Some people give him credit for the Lake Vermilion State Park. Consider that the land for the park was assessed in value to be worth 12 million less than he negotiated with US Steel. In true form when he discovered that the special sales tax money we voted for in 2008 could be used, he sent it to one of his corporate friends. I would have had no problem with the state condemning the property and using Public Domain to get it for the appraised value!
Gov. pawlenty is the worst governor Minnesota has elected since I moved to MN in 1978. The damage he has done to the people of MN will last at least a decade.. I had hoped he would move to Texas but alas no luck. The thought of him running for President is laughable.
He was a one trick pony- no new taxes... but he had no ideas on what to do if he didn't raise taxes, except cut, cut, cut and blame unions ( dog whistle for the teabaggers)... rate an F..... left the state in shambles, health care for the most vulnerable unattainable, and our education system a wreck... loser!
Worst example in my experience and studies, glad to be rid of his ideologically driven incompetence!
I'd give him an F.
He has never proposed or signed a balanced budget in the eight years he has served--using accounting shifts and one-time funds each year to get a budget that met the legal requirement (but not good accounting practice). He has caused a huge shift in funding state government from the income tax ( a progressive tax) to the property tax (a regressive tax).
He seems to have been the first governor to put his political future ahead of the well-being of the state.
Despite his rhetoric about holding the line on spending and not raising taxes, we are now paying significantly more overall but getting less from our government. Property taxes are up significantly, fees are up, schools are laying off staff and teachers, support for the most needy has been cut. He is so focused on ideology that he couldn't recognize the reality of what is happening. His delay of payments to schools alone earns him a grade of Incomplete!
Governor Pawlenty gets a D minus. By protecting upper income Minnesotans, he forced regressive property tax increases to impact middle and lower income families. Education, the driver for future success, was his biggest failure. Instead of investing, he disinvested. K-12 suffered, the barrier to college was raised and he completely ignored early childhood education, the best public investment state government can make. Art Rolnick is right in his strong criticism of Pawlenty's lack of leadership on education. Minnesota will suffer for years to come because of Pawlenty's mistakes.
Like the old song says,Pawlenty is responsible for:
"I've got pawlenty of nothin'. And nothin' is pawlenty for me."
Good bye T-Paw and good riddance.
I would rate Gov. P's performance for his eight years an F. To keep it short, there are two items that really irrateded me. The first, in the name of "not raising" taxes, he pushed normal state sponsored programs to cities and counties. Taxes were raised in these venues to cover that. Second, he was bold enough to get up and say that he left the state with a balanced budget. How could any intelligent person say that? Our state government accomplished very little in these eight years. It would be absolutely insane for TP to run for president of the US.
I once thought there be no one worth then Ventura.
Then we got Pawlenty....
The bottom dropped out.
Failed to be honest with the states needs and his fat headed-ness only proved disastrous for Minnesotans.
Here we are and under funded highway repair and we end up with the worst bridge collapse. Did we get improved funding after? No.
AND it was rushed due to a bid to get the Republicans in for their convention...
Then you have record unemployment and underfunded Minnesota Care & Dislocated worker program (I have been waiting now 2 years to get in on a waiting list).
Seriously, this is why Dayton is coming in.
If you grade him in comparison to the recent governors from Rudy, Al, Arne, to Jesse--I'd vote for any of them over Timmy. Even Jesse didn't place his political ambitions over the commonwealth of Minnesota the way Pawlenty has. F- for single-handedly destroying what it means to be a Minnesotan for the sake of "no new taxes" and a chance at RNC Junior Ideologue of the Year.
In my book he gets an F- for being so immoral: Year after year he cut services for the needy while protecting low taxes for the rich.
F
All of the trouble that Pawlenty inherited he engineered when he was running the state legislature during the Ventura administration. He's the kind of ideologue Minnesota doesn't need.
Every penny I spent on state tax I got back. I can't say the same about the money that went down the Federal rat-hole got me anything other than hated in most of the governments on the planet.
My Minnesota taxes get me good roads, well-fed children, clean lakes and beautiful parks. Why wouldn't you want that, Pawlenty?
How can a governor who inherited a budget surplus when he took office and left with a six billion dollar defict claim he balanced the budget?
The buck stops with responsible leaders, Pawlenty passed the bucks, all six billion of them, and the real deficit on to the next governor.
No leadership or compassion what-so-ever!
I would rate Pawlenty D. He has damaged the State's economy by failing to invest in education and the infrastructure. He also left the State's budget in a shambles.
It is unfortunate because I think he is smarter and knows some of the damage he caused with "No New Taxes", but cared more about political ambition than the residents of Minnesota.
F, at best.
He's leaving the state in a financial bind after having a $1 billion surplus less than two years ago.
His own personal agenda and political aspirations took priority over the state's best interests.
He made little effort on so many fronts. I call him Gov Useless and now he wants to become Pres Useless.
D for "Disappointing".
see the Union:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9077214414651731007#
and see how much Tim is just a part of the problem
We will be happy to say goodbye to the governor who has been dubbed "Little Bush" by friends. Unfortunately he is leaving many problems behind as his mentor did on a national level. I hope Minnesotans speak up when he runs for President to let others know the negative effects our state has experienced due to the direction he chose in his administration.
He's been the worst governor in my lifetime, of more than 45 years. He sacrificed our quality of life and our state's fiscal health for his own political ambitions to be President of the United States. All of his decisions were based on the following question, "What will make me look good for the 2012 elections?"
Worst Governor in my lifetime. We have gone backward in every area. He gets an F.
The only good I can foresee coming of Pawlenty's governorship is if we learn from it the importance of getting some kind of electoral reform so that we are never again stuck with that kind of extremist, pander-to-the-base, minority rule. Ranked-choice voting, though not perfect, is the best reform so far proposed. This has been a costly lesson, and it would be a shame if fail to learn it (but we probably will-- fail, that is).
With the exception of his last 8 years, he was terrific!
Very poor -- the only bragging rights he has is using or threatening to use his infamous veto pen over and over again. He never tried to lead by bringing people together to arrive at solutions to Minnesota's many problems. He is completely unstatesmanlike, and he must be stopped before he pulls the same trick on the rest of the nation. President Pawlenty ? What a tragedy that would be!
FFF-
Worst MN governor ever. Total lack of even a shred of integrity. The only person he looks half way good next to is Sara Pallin. Damned by faint praise.
Pawlenty was and is a very effective politician. He was able to define the debate over taxes and budget issues in Minnesota and force the legislature to accede to his priorieties. He is also an ideologue who has little room for compromise. His success in dealing with the legislature is do largely to the fact that he sees no position but is own; and when you have no interest in listening to opposing points of view it is very easy to take a firm stand.
Pawlenty managed to balance the budget without raisning income taxes by (a) short changing many areas of governemnt, the schools, coourt system and human services; (b) accounting gimics that simply delayed the problem until later (in the long run you are out of office and someone else will have to take the blame) and (c) passing the costs to others (local governments and the public through higher fees).
Pawlenty has no achivement in his tenure that can credibly argued to improve the lives of average Minnesotans. To be fair, Pawlenty never believed that government should try to improve anyone's life, so I suspect he will take no offence to that statement.
If I could end with that, I would be content to say "good riddance" and go on with life. However, by any way you want to measure the quality of a community of people, Minnesotans are worse off for the 8 years Pawlenty spent as governor. The increases in job grownth and tax revenue he kept predicting never materialized and are not on the horizon. Both K-12 and higher education in this state have suffered, the ranks of peolple without health insurance have grown, and in my home town homeless people panhandling or begging for work are such a common sight that it is no longer deemed newsworthy. I do not buy for a minute the protests of republicans and even some moderates that Pawlenty gets a pass because of the national economy, or that these were due to factosr beyond his control. In my liftetime this state has whethered more than one economic downturn and was always able to maintain its schools, invest in infrastructure, and provide for the most vulnerable. The reason we have not done as good a job now is due to the leadership we had these past 8 years, and that was Pawlenty.
I give him an A. I'm sure you can take any government official and put a negative spin on their term, but Pawlenty stuck to his word of not raising taxes and that's more than I can say for 90% of the other officials in this country.
I think Minnesota would have been in much worse shape if some of you could have had your way. It's called fiscal responsibility and I know it's sometimes hard to grasp, but it's necessary.
He's been a complete failure as a Governor, and done nothing but harm the people and the state in his 8 year term.
He's taken money from the education system, forced the poor off medical care, neglected the needs of Minnesotans because of his ill advised policy of not raising taxes and charging his "fees",
Now he's going onto the national scene, touting his accomplishments in Minnesota. One can only hope that his national audience will take a close look at Minnesota, both before he became Governor, and at the end of his term, and determine for themselves, just what a poor chief executive he has been.
We are so very lucky to have his administration over. It will take years to get back to where we were before Tim Pawlenty came onto the scene.
He's been a disgrace.
Grade - S
Not for satisfactory, but for selfish and self-serving.
Unless someone can tell me how we are a better state after Pawlenty, I have to say he failed miserably.
credit for having a balanced budget when our constitution requires one is hardly an achievement. Pawlenty's approach to balancing the budget was a unilateral one which put his personal political beliefs ahead of the best interest of most Minnesotans. Our economy is in a shambles and it is hard to see how his leadership did anything to move us in the right direction. Moreover, he is leaving a political environment that is even more polarized than when he became governor. Much of the blame for this divide can be placed directly on Pawlenty and his petulant leadership style.
Most Minnesotans are smart enough to see through this fraud. He has been a clear loser for Minnesota.
D minus minus:
- Obstructing real consensus and refusing to even consider compromise or change;
- Plunging the state into fiscal disarray and national mediocrity in education and other things that matter;
- selling out his GOP constituents while displaying futile, naked ambitions on the national political stage;
- ditto to dozens of other comments.
Avoids an F only by grading on a curve; at least we aren't Michigan.
When he actually spent time in the state, all he did was veto the work of those who were here working on the problems he contributed to creating. I miss the Minnesota I grew up in. Pawlenty took the state in the opposite direction of everything I love and hold dear about the state.
Grade: F. The fifty-some comments that precede mine provide all the reasons. We will be dealing with the problems he has created for years, and the people of this state will continue to suffer. The only Minnesotans who have reason to be happy with Pawlenty are those among the mega-rich who are greedy, callous, and indifferent to the common good. They found their man.
A for selfish egotism, republican elitism
B for protecting and pandering to the rich
C for parroting antiquated ideas
D for hiding his slick political agendas
F for empathy, public engagement, helping the working class and impoverished.
Pawlenty was the most detached self-absorbed inconsiderate talk-down-to govorner Mn has ever had. He and Bachmann are similar bubbles emerging from the same cesspool.
You get a grade if you go to school and try to learn something. Pawlenty didn't seem interested in learning anything, so there's nothing to grade.
Tim Pawlenty was extremely effective as a governor, getting his policies passed by the Legislature, mostly by very solid use of the veto threat and then the veto.
As for the results of his effective work as Governor, he has managed to raid every pot of money in the state in order to bring his budgets into "balance", while retaining (and enlarging) the structural deficit the state operates in.
Using a billion here (anti-tobacco funds) and a few billion there (school funding "shifting"), he has managed to appear balanced in the very short term (even to the point of claiming a surplus), while ignoring the real problems that are occurring all over the state. School districts are once again providing unequal education due to geographic location, local governments are raising property taxes to maintain the services that were once covered by LGA, and the funding for schools that was shifted to 2011-2012 is unlikely to be paid back during that time.
Of course the Governor chose not to run for a third term -- he would have had to deal with all of these issues that he pushed off to the future. Now that future is coming to roost, and he can sit off on the sidelines to call foul while running for President.
Overall grade as measured by the results in the state of Minnesota: F, for shortsightedness, mean-spiritedness and personal ambition over the good of the office as reflected by the state of the State.
F, of course. For so many reasons. He has single-handily embarrassed our state in so many ways, the most evident being his fabrication and use of the term "unallotment", which was found to be illegal by the state supreme court.
I am a self employed folk musician in Minnesota. Before Pawlenty was elected, I considered myself in the 'lower middle class', because I had health insurance through MinnesotaCare, and lots of jobs through the Minnesota Folk Artists Directory. Soon after he took office.. he cut me and many, many, many people just like me off of affordable health insurance and cut very deeply in the State Arts board budget.. erasing the entire Folk Artists department...ending the publication of distribution of the Folk Artists Directory. He cut off my health insurance and he cut off my major connection to the world or music presenters. How would you feel about someone like that? Does the word, uncaring come to mind?? I am sorry to say I detest the guy.. no grade is necessary.
I thought he has done a very poor job as governor. He over stepped his authority when balancing the budget among many other things. A good governor would not have to rely on a "magic wand" to fix things.
(1) Ethanol - poorly thought through. (2) E-Government - nice idea - poorly executed. (3) debt and budget - passed the buck/debt along (4) Legislative negotiating - extremely poor. Only veto'd. Couldn't get the public to back his position with legislative pressure. (5) Environment - lapsed - Commisoner Corrigan was a 3M corporate shill. DNR underfunded. (6) Transportation - poorly run : Molnau was neither a manager nor a planner nor a partner. Crabby and non-productive. Excessive debt was taken on for massive bump in projects out the door - now it'll be 6 + years of barely scrapping by to cover maintenance and nearly NO new construction. (7) Education - poor- stole money from kids with no intent to ever return it. (8) Health - flat out goofy. Killed the good, helped the rotten. (9) No New Taxes - how about now new Government funding and management ideas. Pale promises and petty demands - but little else.
F : Tim Pawlenty took a phenomenal opportunity to lead this great state to the top of the nation in education and innovative businesses and stuck his head in a hole. His solution for solving problems was to simply cut programs instead of finding creative solutions. He was the equivalent to the housekeeper who sweeps the dirt under the rug. There is a difference between ignorant stubbornness for sticking to your principles. Tim Pawlwenty did the former and as a result, lead this state into a "state" where it has never been.
Definitely an F. I have never felt he was our governor but just somebody using the office as a launching platform for the next presidential race. He has decimated our public education and health care industry. I'm so glad to see him go.
I think the collapse of the 35W bridge says it all. I'm trying to find a few good tidbits of MN that are left, but failing to find anything. He raised our property taxes 60%, he failed to lower govt spending (contrary to the few ignoramus' on here who rated him A solely for their misperceptions), he gutted education and healthcare, and he was gone for president more than he was here to govern. Goodbye and Good Riddance!
A definite F. From a rural perspective, he was simply awful. Although money would have been tight one way or another, Pawlenty wasn't willing to work out any compromises in a bipartisan manner. I'm so glad he's out.
F, nor does he play well with others. In fact, he shamelessly used the people of Minnesota as pawns in a game to further his political career. In my opinion, that is unethical. Worst Minnesota governor in my lifetime.
D - Pawlenty's catch phrase was "fiscal responsibility". It's a great concept; however, delaying payments allocated to various departments and demanding refunds of other payments until the next fiscal quarter is not fiscal responsibility. It's dishonest and deceitful for him to claim that he was balancing our budget when he was merely shifting our debt to the next session.
I would give Governor Pawlenty an F. He came into office with 600 million in reserves and leaves us with a zero balance. Often he would embark on an initiative only to abandon it later and the lack of follow through is troubling. A good example are the energy initiatives that would have provide jobs, a better environment, and sustainablility as we move away from dependence on oil. He filled state government with cronies and folks lacking the tools to run the various agencies. He demonized the poor, immigrant communities, and bit on the hand working people of whom he claimed a kinship to from his South St. Paul roots. For a man who has been given much in the way of an education and skills much was expected and he let the state down.
I give the Governor a C. Pawlenty stuck to his guns about not raising taxes, but was absolutely unartful in working with the legislatures and local governments to accomplish good government with reduced funds. We needed across-the-isle leadership, instead we got a rubber stamp that said "No." to taxes and expected others to make the hard decisions to keep our budget deficit free
He wasted our time and taxed our patience. He spent his time self-aggrandizing and positioning himself within the national GOP. He didn't actually DO anything and he blocked efforts for true governance. I'm glad he's gone!
F - I give Pawlenty a big fat F. Extremely partisan, extremely conservative, extremely anti-public education. extremely enamored with himself. Transformed Minnesota the once star of the North, into Minnissippi. Shame on him !
I give Gov. Pawlenty a F. His "no new taxes" mantra was extremely short-sighted! He did a lot to hurt the people of MN. He played games in order to balance the budget, he cut programs for people on the bottom rung of the ladder (think GAMC), he cut LGA (cities raised taxes or cut services but he wasn't responsible for those decisions), he delayed school payments (will the schools ever see these $$s?), he is anti-family (his family isn't the only type of family that exists). It is long past time for him to depart. I just pray that his presidential aspirations aren't achieved!
F.
He leaves the state $6+ billion in debt, squandered the tobacco settlement money, made substantial cuts to the safety net and seemed almost punitive in they way he cut benefits for the state's least fortunate. At the same time, he shifted the cost of services from the state to cities and counties (and yet somehow managed to leave a $6+ billion debt), which in reality meant tax increases locally to make up for the shortfall. All the while, our state slid into the middle in most areas (k-12 education, higher education, road system and infrastructure, business climate, etc.).
And, he behaved like a spoiled third grader the entire time, whining whenever he didn't get his way. Fortunately, his final year he was out-of-state quite a bit in his bid to run for president.
He was embarrassing and fortunately gone.
While I realize the need to balance the budget for an already cash strapped Minnesota, I was totally disgusted with Mr Pawlenty's effort to ELIMINATE the GAMC program for one of the most vulnerable groups of Minnesota citizens. Individuals that qualify for GAMC earn barely enough money to survive. In addition to this fact, they often struggle with both chronic mental and physical illnesses. When I think of removing the health coverage for these individuals, I become very frustrated. To me, it represents what our state and country SHOULD NOT represent. It represents going after the vulnerable and powerless people. This is done for a simple fact; most of them will not vote or ever offer money to the candidate or his party. He deserves an "F" for his effort.
I would Rate Governor Pawlenty probably the very poorest Governor our Great State has ever had.
a - F.
He did more to hurt working people in Minnesota than any Governor we ever had.
He did not raise taxes on the Rich, but he sure helped our property taxes raise out of sight with his cutting aid to Cities & Counties. He raised every Fee he could find to raise.
D, definitely. Mr. No-New-Taxes has instituted so many new fees, and increased so many existing taxes it would be laughable. My home is worth less than when I bought it, yet my property taxes have almost doubled in the last 10 years. Divisiveness and vilification of the opposition has increased steadily during his reign, where he appears to have the only opinion he finds worth hearing. He has hired unqualified workers "in order to save costs" (see Lt. Gov as transportation secretary) and has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt how ineffective this strategy is. At least he has the economy to blame for the poor state of Minnesota today.
Balking on General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), opposing Medical Marijuana and asking other Republican governors to not participate in any health care reform bill clearly shows Tim Pawlenty's priorities. These priorities did not align with the health and well being of Minnesota citizens nor did it provide any hope.
I agree with all the "D" grades, and a few of the "F" grades, for many of the same reasons. Pawlenty's "achievements" were a shell game, as far as I can tell. I don't want uncontrolled government spending, but I don't want to live in a third world contry (or MIssissippi) either. There just have to be creative, meaningful ideas between those two. I actually started out in Pawlenty's corner, but he totally lost me along the way. I now wouldn't vote for him for any office anywhere..
At best a D. The man had no agenda except "NO". He brought no constructuve solutions or programs to the state. He was driven only by his own political ambition with no concern for the long term future of Minnesota. Glad to see him leave, and I hope he never finds a forum on the national political stage.
Definitely an F-. T-Paw failed this state miserably. He clearly was much more interested in his personal gains from being governor then actually being a governor. Pawlenty is a slimy, dirty politician. All he did was drive the quality of living down in this state. He basically ignored the poorest Minnesotans. He screwed the middle class by passing the puck to counties and cities to solve their financial issues, hence education quality has diminished, services have diminished and property taxes have skyrocketed! Oh but the top income earners of MN are doing ok.....coincidence? I don't think so.
A- This is a good enough grade to be the best governor of my lifetime in the state of Minnesota. He had a no nonsense approach and in the chess game of government did a good job of holding back some of the wasteful spending. He asked the state and local governments to learn to spend in its means and some rose to the occasion, while others just called him names.
He didn't have too much expectations following the Ventura, who had one great year and 3 so-so years.
"F" We should have been as lucky as Alaska and have Pawlenty leave office early. The last eight years of the Pawlenty administration has been horrific for most Minnesotans.
Spending shifts do not make a balance budget. Higher property taxes, tax burdens to the county and city level and of course his service fees.
And most offensive he has taken from the people who can least afford his politics - the working poor. To have health care, housing and benefits taken from them as they try to improve their lives is appalling.
Last, not to take federal money so he can further his own political agenda will backfire on him very soon.
Good Bye and Good Riddance
On both a straight grade and a curve, I'd give Pawlenty a solid D. He behaved no better than a petulent child, unwilling to play well with others and blaming others for his failures. He will be remembered by me as one of the worst governors of Minnesota history.
Gov. Pawlenty gets a "D"
Over the last eight years, compared to the other 49 states, Minnesota has fallen in every measure of economic performance.
Pawlenty kicked the revenue cans in every direction that is away from himself. He kicked it down the road by using budget shifts. He kicked cans all over the state by reducing local government aid, which resulted in massive tax increases at the local level.
Pawlenty's record on education is mixed. He increased education spending in strict dollar terms; but reduced it in inflation adjusted terms. The Commissioner Yecke era devastated the Dept. of Education, pushing Minnesota out of a true leadership position in educating children.
There are two area that keep Pawlenty's head above an "F." One is the NorthStar commuter rail. It is excellent that this line is in place to meet future transportation needs as well as spurring development to the metro's northwest. This needs to be tempored by the fact that, as House Speaker, Pawlenty fought the line tooth and nail. By the time he supported it as governor, the cost of the line had doubled and it missed its terminus by 40 miles.
The other good point in Pawlenty's "D" the rapid and cutting edge rebuilding of the 35W bridge. People are quick to blame Pawlenty for the bridge's collapse, which is an unrealistic stretch of imagination. Pawlenty did, however, get an excellent replacement build.
I'd give him a TF for total failure!! He didn't solve the budget problem. He just shuffled money around, moved the problem to the local level and then left the incoming governor with a big fat deficit. Or maybe an L for lousy is more accurate.....
F - Pawlenty leaves with 6 Billion long term budget hole that does not begin to even account for what the lack of maintenance in each department will cost. Industries did not come to Minnesota, especially the wind turbine industry. One company actively tried to come here and was shunned. Pawlenty bought goods and services from outside the state that he could have purchased within the state. State departments are poorly run. Especially maintenance and inspection is done so poorly, that people are dying in collapsed bridges. Any small business owner who did these things would have been out of business.
Actually all he accomplished was to pass down costs to local government. He did not control or change state spending. the local government and school districts continue to flounder in the vacuum of leadership. The state of Minnesota needs a leader. Pawlenty's grade is "D" he was present some of the time, without a vision and without a long term cohesive plan.
The last eight years of the Pawlenty administration has been one of the (if not the) greatest public sham perpetrated in Minnesota history. Anyone who thinks taxes weren’t raised doesn’t have to pay property taxes. Make no mistake! Ttaxes were raised, but in an underhanded manner -- by shifting the tax burden from the state onto counties, municipalities and service fees!
Pawlenty not only underfunded education in the state, but he also took (robbed) school district reserve funds!. Through accounting shifts, Pawlenty placed the burden of fixing the financial debacle on the next administration. Pawlenty put the poor and homeless on the lowest rung of the ladder while he smirked at the camera in his masterful, arrogant manner.
Tim Pawlenty has robbed Minnesotans of their quality of life. Pawlenty has taken from Minnesota what makes Minnesota great – it’s heritage of caring.
If Tim Pawl4enty's antics and shifty accounting were conducted in the private sector Pawlenty would be prosecuted! Laws must be passed to ensure the Pawlenty style of “governing” NEVER happens again.
Balancing a budget with spending shifts (delayed payments) only transferred the painful choices to the next governor.
Good PR to be able to claim a balanced state budget during a presidential run, but little benefit to the citizens of Minnesota.
Based on actual results, D.
I would lower Clark's A+ grade to an A-. Unfortunately, Governor Pawlenty was unable to gain the support he needed from the DFL to bring our state's debt down to manageble levels.
There will be no bailout for states that are unwilling to live within their means. The naivete of those who would believe otherwise is frightening.
To Gary F:
"Remember, not getting your annual increase is not a cut."
I have to disagree. With the basic costs of operating (utilities for heating, health insurance for employees, gasoline if you operate motor vehicles, etc.) going up, not getting an increase is the same as a cut.
I'm not saying that agencies can't find cuts to help deal with the situation. But we have to be honest with our terminology.
Our state fared better than most with the unemployment rate because we have an educated population. Cuts to education are not the answer to the budget problem. My assessment would be a "D".
F, although a more accurate grade would be W since Pawlenty completely withdrew from public service early in his 2nd term. Tim was the classic do-nothing pseudo-conservative politician. He kept his desk clean by wiping every complicated task away with his veto pen.
Government grew at the usual pace during Pawlenty's regime but he did absolutely nothing to improve services, improve efficiency, modernize, downsize, or rein-in the state's bureaucratic ineptitude. Politicking for the Republican senate job seemed to be his prime job in 2004. When Cheney told him to back off of Coleman's job, he pouted for a year. Campaigning for vice president took most of his energy between 2005 and 2008. For the last two years, he's been pretending to be Presidential and raising money for his next campaign. Pawlenty is the classic Hollywood politician, always looking toward his next job while doing as little as possible at the job he's been hired to do.
He has demonstrated absolutely no management skills and his "accomplishments" are massive debt, a mangled local economy, a larger but less effective state government, an education system in disarray, increased local taxes, and a state without direction. The state's idle rich, however, are happy with Pawlenty's no-taxes-on-the-rich platform, so we'll probably hear from Tim on the national stage.
Pawlenty will be remembered for sending Minnesota into a downward spiral. His disingenuous style epitomizes the slick politician who can always find someone else to blame for problems of his own making.
I can not speak much to his accomplishments in the office, because it seems like he was never in the office. 8 heard more about his trips outside of MN then his work inside MN.
Grade: F- Goodbye Timmy and good riddance.
Based on our states sinking rank amongst the states, and our country's decline in the world, I would give him an A+; his policies were very effective in making this a cold Mississippi.
To sum it up - he is absolutely the worst governor I have seen in my 50 year history of voting in MInnesota. On top of that he stopped being governor (except for using his veto pen and collecting a paycheck) over a year ago to become a presidential wannabe.
I have been a Minnesotan for many decades and I feel that Pawlenty has been the worst governor ever. He chose party over the people and politics over practicality.
Epic Fail.
D in the beginning and F at the end.
Tim is a slick self-serving politician more interested in special interests than the common good for all Minnesotans.
If I was the professor grading the governor in a pass/fail class I would fail him. In a traditional class for his work on the job and dedication to the state, I would give him a D+.
He seems intent only on the health of the laws that would affect his resume and not so much on who he is here to serve: Minnesotans.
His careless an cavalier attitude to the State an the people is very comical. He is a cartoon of many bad joke of uncaring Republikans not interested in our society or in caring how this state moves forward year to year.
It has been painful to see his stewardship
Seeing what's happening to California, New Jersey, Illinois, and New York, we are in pretty good shape.
Right now, the forecast-ed revenues will be enough to cover what we spent last year. So, we really only need to reduce the automatic increases to the state budget.
Remember, not getting your annual increase is not a cut.
We spend the same as last year, and make some cuts so to help pay back some of that school money.
Just remember liberals, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, they haven't been able to tax enough to satisfy the insatiable beast call government.
Then look at the big picture, Greece, Spain, France, and England, they are finding out that government must live within it's means.
If leaving us with a $6+ billion deficit while spending most of his time running for higher office can be considered doing a good job, then Pawlenty has done a good job. Or else he's given us a hosing -- take your pick.
I moved here from Arizona in 2009, so right off the bat, I appreciated that you have a Governor that can cogently communicate to their constituents.
That said, I couldn't really tell you what I think about Pawlenty, because it seems that he's been out of town running for president the entire time I've been here.
It is considered a full time job, right?
I would doubt that this question will yield many unbiased replies. I hope tomorrow's question will be to grade our expected job that Gov Dayton will do. I am sure it will reverse the replies that you will see here. I felt that Gov Pawlenty did a fine job. Remember that he followed an independent governor that left a difficult situation that many people were not happy with. He had to deal with a Democratic tax and spend control of the state house as well as an economy that was in trouble. Many states would like to have our unemployment rate and for that matter our financial situation.
A+ The evidence will be clear as the far left postings to this question can't stand the truth Gov Pawlenty has been communicating for the past 8 years.
We are on a course for fiscal disaster with our out of control spending, look at California, Illinois or Greece which will be the future of MN.
This is not a revenue issue but a spending issue and he is the first gov in a long time to take a stand against the far left DFL and say NO MORE SPENDING!
I say a big thank you Gov!
D, at best -- he's ducked or deferred every unpleasant issue he's come up against and spent a large part of his term polishing his conservative credentials in preparation for a run at higher office at the expense of Minnesota's needs.
Pawlenty was an unfortunate failure, having started off with some promising acts of bipartisanship he took an absurd leap to the right for his second term leaving us with the worst budgetary mess in too many decades and a state once known for civility now has now fallen into common, ugly politics.
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