Gov. Tim Pawlenty's budget is bad news for low-income Minnesotans who rely on state health care and for mayors already struggling to balance their own budgets, but good news for corporations paying high taxes. The plan, released Monday, would erase a $1.2 billion state deficit largely through deep cuts in aid to local governments, in funding for health and human services and with an average 6 percent across-the-board cut to state agencies, likely to result in layoffs. Nearly one-third of the governor's budget fix would rely on $387 million in federal stimulus money. That money isn't yet in the bank and, if it doesn't come through, the cuts could be far deeper.
Pawlenty also proposed corporate and small-business tax cuts. The cost -- and benefit -- of those reductions wouldn't fully materialize until after he leaves office next year.
"This is a spit in the ocean compared to what should be done," Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference announcing his proposals.
The governor spared programs for the military, veterans, state public safety and K-12 classroom education. But the cuts he called for dug deep into state government, including the governor's office, the judiciary and the Legislature.
The proposal starts what is expected to be a fierce budget battle between a DFL-controlled Legislature and a lame-duck Republican governor trying to use his folksy brand of fiscal conservatism to launch him to the national stage.
Democrats criticized Pawlenty for using the federal stimulus funds he has bashed and for not balancing the budget solely through cuts, as he had pledged.
House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, said the governor is "flat-out lying" in saying he's not cutting public safety, because his proposal would cut the aid that cities depend on to keep their firefighters and cops paid.
The proposal slices $347 million from health and human services programs. It would end or alter health care coverage for about 40,000 Minnesotans.