Zellers: DFL Budget A Pile Of Contradictions

ST. PAUL, March 17, 2010 – Minnesota House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Zellers, Maple Grove, today commented on the budget resolution introduced by Democrats in the Ways & Means Committee.

“Forget everything Democrats have railed on for the last nine months, because it’s all in their own budget.  They blasted the governor for using federal money, but it’s in their budget.  They blasted the governor over the possibility of short-term borrowing, but they failed to accept his solution for preventing it.  It’s a pile of contradictions and hypocrisies.” 

When Governor Pawlenty proposed using as yet unapproved federal money to balance the budget, Democrats quickly pounced on the idea, calling it “funny money” and claiming the governor’s budget was unbalanced as a result.  They also held hearings to grill state finance officials over plans developed in case the state needed to use short-term borrowing to meet cash flow needs.  The budget resolution introduced today adopts the federal money, but rejects the governor’s proposal to build up the cash flow account.

"Their targets also fail to account for the unallotment lawsuit.  Normally when someone joins a lawsuit they do so in the hopes of winning, but Democrats apparently spent taxpayers' money to go to court over a case they want to lose.  It’s pretty obvious now why they went to court, and it wasn’t out of great concern for the constitution." 

House Democrats ordered nonpartisan House Research staff to file an amicus curiae brief in support of a lawsuit challenging Pawlenty’s use of unallotments to balance the budget.  They later spent $25,000 of taxpayer money to hire a DFL-leaning lawyer to file a second brief with the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The budget resolution is expected to be up for a vote in the House Ways & Means Committee Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

-30-