The stories coming out of the capital are getting strange regarding the bonding bill. We have respected news outlets "reporting" the Governor is a chauvinist because he line-item vetoed projects out of a bill. The media outlets that reported this are not naive, and should be embarrassed for giving it any credence or light of day.
It is odd Democrats have not yet learned that you can take Governor Pawlenty at his word. He told them repeatedly if you send a bill that ignores the bonding practices of the last 30 years and my priorities I will exercise my ability to veto or line-item veto the bill. The Governor's projects for veterans and the parks were key priorities, so in ignoring his requests, it is only appropriate to remove the key priorities Democrats refused to negotiate on.
A few notes on the Central Corridor veto
- In my book, this was all about retribution for the transportation bill veto override. What a childish, immature move by Pawlenty. Talk about setting aside the interests of the people of Minnesota in order to settle a political score. The Governor had the Central Corridor in his proposed bonding bill. He could have left in the Central Corridor and stayed under his $825 million cap. The only real rationale for the veto was payback. Minnesota just lost hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding because the Governor threw a temper tantrum. This was thuggery, pure and simple. How embarrassing.
- Mary LaHammer of TPT has a different theory:
Gov. Pawlenty hit projects hard that are close to House Chair Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul). Majority Leader Tony Sertich called it “personal” what Pawlenty did to chair Hausman. Sen. Sandy Pappas (DFL-St. Paul) was very emotional right after the gov’s press conference saying the vetoes are “insults to chair Hausman.” The question some reporters started asking is if gender looks like a factor with Hausman being a female chair. Hausman was at the governor’s press conference but Pappas said she ran out because she was so upset. We haven’t been able to verify that because Hausman has been tied up in meetings. But two female senators from St. Paul (Anderson & Pappas) saw gender as a factor.
- Reps. Ellison and McCollum call out the Gov for his immaturity.
- A few people have asked me about the possibility of a veto override. I wouldn’t get your hopes up. It took years to build the bipartisan consensus necessary to override the transportation veto. Speaker Kelliher already pulled one rabbit out of her hat this session, looking for a second might just be asking for too much. Still, one can hope.
- Twin Cities Finance and Commerce had this to say about the veto, “Pawlenty to St Paul: Drop dead“
House Majority Leader Rep. Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, said Pawlenty’s vetoes were a punishment for previous actions, like the Legislature’s override of the governor’s veto of the $6.6 billion transportation bill.
“That’s alarming in politics. It’s un-Minnesotan,” Sertich said. He added that it was “”too soon to tell” whether the House and Senate would try to override any of Pawlenty’s line-item vetoes.
