Pawlenty has always been a classic example of Republican “form over substance”. He has spent his entire term quietly reducing the quality of life in Minnesota. He has crippled schools and hospitals, and has shifted state income from income taxes to regressive (and excessive) property taxes. His image of the future quality of Minnesota education resembles something more on the order of Louisiana or Mississippi or Alabama.

Good riddance to a thoroughly incompetent and malicious governor.

“There will be fees, delayed payments in promised aid to schools, back-loaded funding “tails” on various programs, and myriad other accounting sleights of hand. One-time aid from the federal government will be gratefully accepted even as the state whacks local government aid to cities and counties and promotes other policies that are sure to result in higher local property taxes. Pots of money specifically earmarked for non-general-fund purposes will be raided. And on the expenditure side of the ledger, the governor will pretend that inflation doesn’t exist.

Unlike Houdini, Pawlenty is playing a role that can’t end painlessly. People will lose their health insurance, their childcare subsidies, their affordable nursing homes. Be it taxes, fees, or the withdrawing of government support, the bang for your buck in state tax dollars is almost certain to diminish significantly”. –Britt Robson

Could it be that TPaw took Minnesotan’s advice on how to fix Minnesota’s revenue problem and left?