Lacking ‘magnetism,’ Pawlenty gets props from the right — for unallotment

In a fawning new profile, The American Spectator trumpets Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s early efforts to secure the 2012 GOP nomination for president. While acknowledging that some dismiss T-Paw as “too vanilla” and citing his “lack of magnetism,” the conservative publication gives Minnesota’s outgoing governor props for unallotment:

At the end of this last legislative session, Pawlenty demanded his Democrat-controlled legislature balance the budget or he would. Not only had Democrats passed budget bills that left a $3 billion gap in income and expenditures, but they wanted to increase taxes on their fellow Minnesotans on everything from alcohol and music downloads, including income taxes for every bracket.Pawlenty outwitted his big-spending legislators and exercised an obscure law on the books that enabled him to remove any state spending for which funding doesn’t exist. In Pawlenty’s last major achievement as governor, he balanced the budget and finally removed Minnesota from the dreaded list of top ten most highly-taxed states. Talk about going out with a bang.

Unallotment — Pawlenty’s unilateral slashing of expenses without input of the full legislature — also gets the guv praise south of the border. Quoted in the Iowa alt-weekly CityView, Linn County Republican Party chair Tim Palmer considers Pawlenty a darkhorse: “He’s a neighboring governor who just pulled off what many call a ‘budget miracle’ in his home state and is leaving on a high note.”

But here in Minnesota, some are less enamored of unallotment. At least two groups are considering court challenges of Pawlenty’s authority to make the sweeping cuts. The state chapter of the ACLU is considering a suit over the elimination of Minnesota’s political contribution refund program and the scrapping of the General Assistance Medical program for poor, single adults. And, as Paul Demko reported here last month, Common Cause will definitely be suing over unallotment. In a filing in the next few weeks, the nonprofit plans to question Pawlenty’s constitutional authority to use the unallotment powers so broadly and challenge whether he can defund programs that are enshrined in state law.