Pawlenty gets slapped!

May 6th, 2010

pawlentyfish

You know life is good in Minnesota when the Supreme Court slaps The Green Chameleon, Gov. Tim Pawlenty!

chameleon

(FYI, it’s been a busy week in CapX 2020 transmission line land, the scoping hearings, today is Cannon Falls.  Check it out on www.nocapx2020.info)

Here’s the decision:

Supreme Court Unallotment Decision

In short:

In the context of this limited constitutional grant of gubernatorial authority with regard to appropriations, we cannot conclude that the Legislature intended to authorize the executive branch to use the unallotment process to balance the budget for an entire biennium when balanced spending and revenue legislation has not been initially agreed upon by the Legislature and the Governor. Instead, we conclude that the Legislature intended the unallotment authority to serve the more narrow purpose of providing a mechanism by which the executive branch could address unanticipated deficits that occur after a balanced budget has previously been enacted.

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Legislative & Policy
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