MN Supreme Court Deals Blow To Pawlenty's Powers

May 5, 2010
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Marty Owings

In a 3 to 4 ruling today, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided that Governor Tim Pawlenty had exceeded his authority by using his unallotment powers to cut funds to a state nutrition program. The ruling will now leave Law Makers to deal with $2.7 billion in budget cuts, a prospect that will be daunting given they have just two weeks left in the regular session.

The ruling cuts both ways for the DFL majority at the Legislature. On one hand they can claim victory over Pawlenty's unilateral power grab, which left them embarrassed at the end of last years session. On the other hand, they're now staring down the barrel of a $2.7 billion dollar budget shortfall.

For Pawlenty, the ruling comes on the heels of a press conference yesterday in which he scolded Law Makers for not cutting more from the budget and threatened to use his authority to do it himself. Now that he now longer has that authority, he'll have to go back to straight negotiations with the DFL leadership, the same folks he embarrassed last session. The ruling could also have an impact on his Presidential aspirations because the Court essentially said that the Governor acted illegally.

So what does it all mean? Well it makes the prospect for a special session much more likely, given the fact that DFL Law Makers and the Governor are still nearly a $700 million apart on the budget. Now the Governor is forced back into negotiating with Legislative Leaders and while DFL Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher runs for Governor and Governor Pawlenty explores a run for President those negotiations won't be pleasant.

As far as the Political spin, it's interesting to note that the two House Members running for Governor, Kelliher and Republican Tom Emmer had dueling messages today regarding the High Courts ruling.

Kelliher released a statement saying, "Once again, the courts have affirmed that Governor Pawlenty acted unconstitutionally by walking away from the table and turning his back on the legislature and the people of Minnesota during a challenging budget crisis. This is exactly why I’m running for governor. We need a governor who will sit down with people and work out solutions to our toughest problems. This is what Minnesotans expect from their leaders."

Tom Emmer issued his press release which said, "In the latest example of judicial activism, the Minnesota Supreme Court, in a narrow 4-3 decision, took it upon itself to rewrite the unallotment statute to their liking by adding conditions on the executive branch that do not exist in the current statute." Emmer's release adds, "It is now up to Speaker Kelliher, Majority Leader Pogemiller and the DFL controlled legislature to reinstate the unallotments in order to fix the budget hole created by their failure to produce a balanced budget in 2009."

Here is reaction from DFLer Paul Thissen and Republican Jim Abeler.

Paul Thissen (DFL) comments on Court Ruling
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Jim Abler (R) comments on Court Ruling
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