Amid Minnesota Crisis, Pawlenty Faces Scrutiny
By TRIP GABRIEL
NYT
On the presidential campaign trail, Tim Pawlenty, who in January completed two terms as governor of Minnesota, runs largely as an implacable foe of government spending, saying he drew “a line in the sand” in his home state and stood tough against Democrats during a government shutdown in 2005.
Now, with Minnesota struggling through Week 2 of another government shutdown over a budget shortfall, Mr. Pawlenty’s fiscal record as governor is drawing closer scrutiny. And while Mr. Pawlenty did face economic and political challenges in balancing the state’s budget each year, his record includes what critics say was an overreliance on one-time accounting maneuvers that failed to address the underlying problems.
The current shutdown, with interstate truckers barred from rest stops and 22,000 state workers placed on furlough, is over how to close a $5 billion deficit that the state finance department says is largely the result of holes left by Mr. Pawlenty’s final budget.
Minnesota’s bond rating was downgraded last week by the national firm Fitch Ratings, which cited the current shutdown as well as “nonrecurring balancing tools” in earlier years that have left the state on shaky financial ground.
(More here.)
NYT
On the presidential campaign trail, Tim Pawlenty, who in January completed two terms as governor of Minnesota, runs largely as an implacable foe of government spending, saying he drew “a line in the sand” in his home state and stood tough against Democrats during a government shutdown in 2005.
Now, with Minnesota struggling through Week 2 of another government shutdown over a budget shortfall, Mr. Pawlenty’s fiscal record as governor is drawing closer scrutiny. And while Mr. Pawlenty did face economic and political challenges in balancing the state’s budget each year, his record includes what critics say was an overreliance on one-time accounting maneuvers that failed to address the underlying problems.
The current shutdown, with interstate truckers barred from rest stops and 22,000 state workers placed on furlough, is over how to close a $5 billion deficit that the state finance department says is largely the result of holes left by Mr. Pawlenty’s final budget.
Minnesota’s bond rating was downgraded last week by the national firm Fitch Ratings, which cited the current shutdown as well as “nonrecurring balancing tools” in earlier years that have left the state on shaky financial ground.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
The underlying problem is state spending which has outpaced population growth and rates of inflation. Accounting gimmicks are a symptom.
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