Many of us have been screaming about this! Pawlenty has the unmitigated gall to run for the presidency on a "fiscal conservative" platform after leaving the state of Minnesota in economic ruin!!!
And yet, until now, the Democrats have not hit back. And, of course, the Corporate Media has allowed T-Paw to slide.
Finally, there's been some rumbling on this issue...
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<snip>
July 13, 2011
Amid Minnesota Crisis, Pawlenty Faces Scrutiny
By TRIP GABRIEL
The current shutdown, with interstate truckers barred from rest stops and 22,000 state workers placed on furlough, is over how to close a $5 billion deficit that the state finance department says is largely the result of holes left by Mr. Pawlenty’s final budget. Minnesota’s bond rating was downgraded last week by the national firm Fitch Ratings, which cited the current shutdown as well as “nonrecurring balancing tools” in earlier years that have left the state on shaky financial ground.
“That’s the classic definition of how you kick the can into the future,” said Arne Carlson, a former Republican governor of Minnesota who is a critic of Mr. Pawlenty’s fiscal management. “He basically reduced the weight in Pocket A and increased the weight in Pocket B, and said, ‘Look at what a great job I did.’ This was all sleight of hand.”
Mr. Pawlenty pushed back aggressively on the suggestion that he bore any responsibility for the current crisis, in which his Democratic successor, Gov. Mark Dayton, is deadlocked with Republican majorities in the Legislature. “Everybody is responsible for the budgets on their watch,” Mr. Pawlenty said in an interview. “I’ve been gone for six months, and the last budget on my watch is in the black.” Dismissing the budget projections showing a large shortfall, he said, for example, that about $2 billion could be trimmed by continuing to delay state aid to public schools into the future, which Democrats have agreed to.
Mr. Pawlenty points to having significantly reduced the growth rate of state spending as governor for the first time in Minnesota history and balancing budgets without new taxes. But though he largely held the line on increasing state taxes, residential property taxes soared by 38.2 percent during the Pawlenty years, as cities and towns sought to maintain services like police forces and schools, according to Minnesota 2020, a progressive research group.
Mr. Pawlenty inherited a deficit in 2003, his first year in office, and his attempts to balance budgets while fulfilling a no-new-taxes pledge were checked by Democratic or split Legislatures, which accused him of undermining schools and social services.
In the spring of 2009, Mr. Pawlenty signed every spending bill that Democratic lawmakers sent him, surprising opponents. </snip>
read much more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/us/politics/14pawlenty.html?_r=1&nl=us&emc=politicsemailema2&pagewanted=print
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