Kelliher on the unallotment ruling

In a news release this afternoon, House Speaker and DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher called Judge Kathleen Gearin’s order on the Pawlenty unallotment lawsuit “a victory for all Minnesotans.”

“[The order] clearly lays out that the way Gov. Pawlenty used unallotment at the end of the last legislative session was not constitutional,” she elaborated in an interview with PIM.  “The governor took a go-it-alone attitude, and when you are facing a budget crisis of the size and magnitude we are, that is unacceptable.”

The ruling will only add to the state’s mounting deficit problems, Kelliher acknowledged.

“As this debt grows, Minnesotans expect that their leaders will come together and solve these bigger problems,” she said. “That is what I’m going to call for in the House.” She also added that “all solutions” remain on the table for fixing the budget deficit.

–Patrick Thornton