True North

Here's the response from Rep. Tim Sanders (R 51A) to the Governor's decision to unallot to solve the budget gap left by Democratic leaders in the Legislature.

This afternoon, Governor Tim Pawlenty announced there will be no special session and no government shutdown. According to the Governor, the 2009 session will definitely end Monday night at midnight. The governor has decided to take the bills the DFL majority has put on his desk, line-item veto in some places, and sign them. The DFL bills irresponsibly leave a gap of $3 billion, and the governor is in a position to unallot to cover the gap, although he said he would prefer a negotiated solution with the DFL leadership. They now have a few days to do that.

We face a $6.4 billion budget deficit and the Constitution states we must balance our bottom line by July 1. But the legislative majority has failed to get the job done, so the governor's announcement today says he will do the hard work of erasing the deficit with or without DFL cooperation.

The following is Governor Pawlenty's news release. I will continue to provide updates as we close out the 2009 State Legislative Session.

Thanks,

Tim

The key part of Pawlenty's release is the closing.

“I’m willing to work with the DFL on a reasonable plan, but I’m not willing to let them squeeze more money out of taxpayers and further burden job creators and employers in the midst of the toughest economy in more than 60 years,” Governor Pawlenty said. “One way or another, we will get the budget situation resolved, keeping taxpayers and families first in our minds.”

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