Pawlenty Proposes Linking Spending to Revenue

Governor Tim Pawlenty has proposed a constitutional amendment to ensure the state has a balanced budget.

The proposed amendment would tie state spending to the revenues raised in the previous state budget. Currently the legislature and the governor base their future budgets on revenue forecasts provided by State Economist Tom Stinson. Pawlenty contends that often times the forecasts are wrong or often times may change providing less money than is available to spend.

"Basing legally binding spending commitments on guesses about revenue is like building a house on shifting sand," said Pawlenty.

DFL Senate Tax Committee Chairman Tom Baak said, "We're going to reach out to the governor and take the proposal very seriously in the senate tax committee."

Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller also promised a serious look at the proposal. "We're looking at a $5-7 Billion ice berg. And if this helps us deal with that, then we'd like to consider it. However, Pogemiller said the governor has never proposed a state budget of his own that met his new criteria.

The governor's proposed wording of the constitutional amendment is as follows:

"Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require that the state government general fund expenditures be limited to the amount of actual general fund revenues received by the state in the previous two-year budget period?"