Defending the Governor

I find this debate on the health impact fee aka tobacco tax very interesting. I know that some Republicans are not happy about it. I want to specifically respond to the posting on the Taxpayers League blog with regards the pledge that Governor Pawlenty gave in order to win the endorsement and the election.

As many of you saw this years session became very messy toward the bitter end. We had a divided legislature. Neither the House or the Senate was willing to budge. The governor stepped in on many occasions to try to end the stalemate including a meeting at Camp Ripley away from the Capitol. Neither side was able offer a solution to the problem because we had divided House. The governor was the only one to offer a solution that would end the session. The legislatures primary responsibility is to pass a balanced budget. The governor cannot sign a bill until the legislature passes it.

The governor was faced with two evils by the end of the fiscal deadline. Either let the House and Senate continue to negotiate and be faced with spending $4.68 million dollars of taxpayers money per day after the fiscal deadline or offer a solution like the health impact fee. Now I dont think that anybody really liked the idea of targeting a portion of the population to balance the state budget. This gets to the no tax pledge signed by the governor. So I guess its ok that the governor not break his pledge but then the state continue spending money that the state doesnt have? The special session was in fact a tax increase because its money that is not allocated in the budget.

The last thing that I want to comment on is the publics reaction to the special session. While some partisans were busy blaming their respective opponents, most Minnesotans were getting angry with the Legislature as a whole irrespective of party. My biggest concern is that the State Capitol was sounding more like Capitol Hill this year. I really dont think we want to head down that road. Minnesotans have a citizen legislature and they dont want it to act like a professional legislature like Congress. Leadership is about getting things done. The legislature didnt get the job done. The governor took the initiative and got the job done and saved the taxpayers money.