Do you not know what the word ‘neocon’ means, or you are just being supremely presumptuous? Whatever the case, I know your words will find an audience. I mean, who can fail to be swayed by name calling and projected hate?

“he just reallocated where we pay so”

So the people spending the money would be made to collect it too. It breeds responsibility and good government.

Because bureaucracies should prove they are worthy of funding from time to time.

Should it be easy to spend other peoples money? No.

…which thus made him have to cut spending for cities which thus made them have to raise property taxes. He hasnt done shit for taxes, he just reallocated where we pay so he wouldnt have to get blamed for them…

Or, the cities, facing budget constraints could actually have cut spending. Start with trimming half of the 50+ different acronymed bureaucratic organizations in the Mpls city structure.

Furthermore Andrew what the surplus meant was that there was $2 billion more than the state would’ve spent. Taking into account a 9% spending increase which a lot of conservatives thought was too high we still had a surplus with no need to raise taxes. The best way to get rid of a surplus is to cut taxes and not spend money.

The worst way to create permanent deficits is to increase taxes when there are large surpluses and try to spend as much money as you think they can spend.

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

Where would you put that transportation money Andrew?? What percentage should be used to actually build roads or do you believe it should be used for transit?

The DFL is playing games with this right now as we have learned over the years the DFL refuses to build any roads as that goes against their base with the transit folks. The only major road a DFL’r can claim is the 394 when it was first built and even then it was criticized due to the fact it was a highway built only because of the wealthy DFL base in Minnetonka.

Pawlenty at least get the 694 & 494 road work done! At least he held the line on additional taxes.

Andrew since you feel the taxes are needed so much I would guess then you will not take any tax deductions and perhaps even donate more for the roads you say we need so bad?

Surplus Andrew means the government COLLECTED more than anticipated and more than the budget called for. So since we gave up more than what was needed we should increase or tax burden? You truly are not with it at all Andrew. To claim Pawlenty is trying to run the state on the surplus only just once again shows how out of touch you are and just maybe you should go break in your political chops on a less known forum so you do not slammed down so bad all the time.

Pawlenty is the ONLY leader in St. Paul. Thank God we have him.

The 2 billion surplus, apparently half of that is gone because of taxes or inflation or something, I forget why. Secondly, its a surplus, we cant plan to run a state on a surplus. We cant plan to fix our transportation shortfalls on a surplus that wont last that long. Surpluses are rainy day fixer uppers, they are by no means solutions. We need a solution that will provide the money needed for longer than a year or two because the problem will persist after that.

Pawlenty really has been the most worthless governor. The state has not moved forward on a single issue, we have stayed stagnant. Give me on issue the state has move forward on? I guess I can think of two, the smoking ban, and he got rid of the grad standards from middle school and high schools, those were infuriating. Those are small, non-existant issues.

Give me something the governor has done for this state? He kept taxes lower, which thus made him have to cut spending for cities which thus made them have to raise property taxes. He hasnt done shit for taxes, he just reallocated where we pay so he wouldnt have to get blamed for them.

Furthermore, Why is it wrong to adjust the surplus for inflation! Give me the Republican spin please.

So far the polls have shown you to bee wrong. I have a feeling those that who supported the governor in the last election will continue to do so since he has not changed his stance on anything. Those that didn’t support him then wouldn’t change sides either. You can be delusional all you want about some grand uprising of the people but it isn’t going to happen. My guess is you hang out with people who all share your views which causes you to have a skewed view of public opinion.

One, they wrote no budget until the Governor veoted bills. Maybe if they had worked out a budget they then could’ve negoiated more things they wanted.

Two, how many bills did the governor have to veto to get their attention? They should’ve woke up after the bonding bill mistake!

Three, the governor offered some alternatives which they decided to ignore like a bond bill for transportation that will start $2 billion in transportation projects almost immediately. No it had to be a gas tax increase and local metro sales tax.

Four, the Democrats don’t understand that when there is a $2 billion dollar surplus you don’t need to raise taxes.

Five, lets see the budget grew by 9% under Tim’s proposal. It seemed like he threw in an inflation already so where’s the beef?

Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN

Pawlenty owed no further compromise. Fuck the DFL.

Why is Pawlenty against adjusting the surplus for inflation?