Governor, DFL legislative leaders swap letters
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislative leaders swapped letters today (May 13) regarding budget talks and state of affairs at the Capitol.
In his letter, Pawlenty repeated his warning that the DFL budget plan leaves a $3 billion budget hole and that the DFL tax bill he vetoed last weekend would have provided only a $1 billion to fill it had the bill been signed.
“It is time for you to fill in the blanks,” Pawlenty wrote.
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, and Senat Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, thanked the governor for a recent negotiation offer that he made — they indicated an agreement to a K-12 funding shift, something the House also proposed, as long as it also included new revenue.
“Without ongoing revenue to refill the budget reserve we only put off the fiscal reckoning to another day,” the Democrats wrote.
