Pawlenty proposes pain delay

Gov. Tim Pawlenty told Minnesotans Tuesday that, regardless of the recession, they can have most of the same government services in the next two years that they have now. They can, if the Legislature is willing to go along with his recommendation to pump a whopping $4.9 billion in one-time money into a $32.6 billion 2010-11 budget.

Seldom, if ever, has a Minnesota governor produced a budget plan so dependent on one-time money. It comes in the form of $2.6 billion in federal stimulus dollars, $1.3 billion in delayed payments to schools, and $1 billion in borrowing against future state revenues -- a feature DFLers have taken to calling his "Ponzi scheme."

Pawlenty proposes to use those non-recurring funds to pay for recurring expenses -- something that's ordinarily a fiscal management no-no. This situation is different, he said, for two reasons: The state is experiencing an economic emergency, in which the usual rules must be bent. And, he indicated, he believes the state can function adequately without that one-time money in 2012-13.

He went so far as to project the expenditures that would be required to keep the state budget balanced after the one-time money is gone. It's in those numbers that the inevitable pain appears: Pawlenty envisions spending 25 percent less than forecast in those years on health care and welfare; 19 percent less on aid to cities and counties; 12 percent less on higher education.

But Pawlenty does not forecast a cut in K-12 education spending, which consumes about 40 percent of the state budget. He seeks a 2 percent increase for K-12 in the coming biennium over 2008-09. Even his projection for 2012-13, when the one-time money he books in the next two years is gone, shows a 2.75 percent K-12 increase from the previous biennium. Ironically, it's Senate DFLers, public education's traditional allies, who say they are willing to cut education spending this year, rather than approve a budget that's excessively dependent on one-time money.