Governor Pawlenty's Clean Sweep of the Legislative Session

In politics as in professional sports, every now and then you witness what can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime season. When you're lucky enough to be in the stands for the entire season and see your team sweep the World Series, it's a memory that lasts a lifetime. So it was for beleaguered Minnesota Republicans this week –thanks to the bold and strategic leadership provided by the GOP team's general manager, Governor Tim Pawlenty.

As recently as last week, no local political prognosticators dared to predict how this complicated legislative season would end. Legislators returned to the Capitol last January where they faced a record-setting $4.6 billion dollar budget shortfall. As the session dragged on, Minnesota, along with the rest of the nation, continued to suffer the effects of a deep and lengthy recession.

Odds makers believed that DFLers had the upper hand: their team is blessed with a veto-proof majority in the Senate and needs only three Republican votes to override the governor in the House.

Minnesota Democrats also believed that the new presidential administration signaled that the electorate was ready for a return to the far-left's agenda – one of increased government spending paid for with higher taxes.

So, with all of these advantages, how did Governor Pawlenty best them once again?

Last January, as required by law, Governor Pawlenty delivered his balanced budget to the legislature. While the DFL leadership complained mightily about Pawlenty's "no new taxes" plan, they strangely held off announcing their own solution.

When the Democratic leaders finally announced their plans in late April, they couldn't even agree on how much to raise taxes – the House plan called for $1 billion in new taxes while the Senate upped the ante and proposed raising taxes by nearly $1.5 billion. Interestingly, the House and the Senate then spent much of the last month forcing their members to vote on some of the most unpopular tax increases ever suggested. The legislature then began to play their cards: Democrats in the House and Senate proposed tax increases on everything and everyone -- from abolishing popular income tax deductions (including the popular middle-class home mortgage interest deduction as well as the charitable gift deduction) as well as increased taxes on beer, wine, even Internet downloads. Predictably, the DFL passed their tax bill that significantly raised taxes.

Last weekend, Pawlenty vetoed that tax bill. He told legislative leaders that it was time to get down to business and eliminate the multi-billion dollar budget deficit. And here's where DFL leaders made their fatal mistake: they apparently underestimated how serious Pawlenty was about holding the line on taxes. They learned very quickly that he meant what he said.

Misjudging the governor's commitment to living within our means was one mistake. But it became a fatal mistake when DFL leaders sent Pawlenty the last of their spending bills Thursday night. At this point in negotiations, all they had to do was withhold one spending bill to maintain some bargaining power. Holding on to one bill would force Pawlenty to negotiate with them or face the consequences. Apparently the DFL's hubris got in the way of good legislative strategy.

Upon receiving the final spending bill from the legislature, Pawlenty understood he held all of the negotiating cards. With all of the spending bills on the governor's desk, the DFL had no "bargaining chips" to force a government shutdown or worse, a legislative special session. Why the DFL leadership made this strategic blunder I'll never know. I can only assume that they believed that Pawlenty would, in the 11^th hour, bow to their demands for billions of dollars in new taxes.

Instead, Pawlenty quickly called a news conference and announced that he would do the job the legislature neglected: balance the budget. Rather than negotiate a solution to the budget mess, Pawlenty announced that he would unilaterally carve out budget savings with a rarely used constitutional power – unallotment -- given to Minnesota governors to ensure that we have a balanced budget.

And so it goes – it's the ninth inning of this proverbial series and the Democrats are up to bat. Far behind in score, they now have two outs and no runners on base. They know they lost this series due to a series of errors and miscalculations. And average Minnesota taxpayers know that they've won – they've won more freedom from the oppression of ever-increasing taxes.

There has been much hand wringing amongst Republicans and particularly conservatives about the future of the GOP and its leadership. After his principled and masterful handling of this legislative session, Pawlenty has guaranteed himself a place on the national leadership scene.