State economist cautiously optimistic about recovery

With the release of another economic forecast this week, fiscal analysts, lawmakers, reporters and the rest of the Capitol world set about their semi-annual search through the details of the state’s most recent budget performance.

Counties advance plan for local control, state savings

Minnesota's whopping structural budget deficit has spawned a number of proposals for retooling government to reduce costs, but few of the plans to emerge so far are as expansive as the one released by the Association of Minnesota Counties.

Vargas confirms foundations to push fundamental budget reform 

Sandy Vargas, president and CEO of The Minneapolis Foundation, called back after deadline with the news that the foundation she runs and the four others that commissioned the Public Strategies Group to write Minnesota’s Bottom Line: Better Results for Dollars Spent will be continuing to push the report and the issue of fixing Minnesota’s budget gone awry.

In Their Own Words: Just who is Babak Armajani, co-founder of the Public Strategies Group? 

This spring, at the invitation of five of Minnesota’s largest foundations, PSG spent six weeks compiling a report for the Legislature called Minnesota’s Bottom Line: Better Results for Dollars Spent.

Mayors sound the unallotment alarm

Reaction to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s announcement of unallotment targets was swiftthis afternoon, and predictably, among the firstto check in were mayors of Minnesota cities. Minnesotans can look forward to "significant" property tax increases, along with major cuts to public safety, libraries, parks and other city services as part of the governor’s $192 million unallotment of money [...]

Pawlenty announces unallotment targets

Gov. Tim Pawlenty today dropped the unallotment ax on cities, counties, renters, colleges,state agenciesand those who make donations to political candidates, cutting the budget by $2.675 billion. Although the governor’s press conference is still going on at the Capitol, here are the highlights of the proposed unallotments (referred to as the “budget solution” in communications from [...]

The biggest unallotment target? Tim Pawlenty

Within an hour of announcing his unallotment targets this afternoon, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty might have felt like he had a target painted on his own back. "In just under an hour today, Gov. Pawlenty has done more damage to Minnesota than he has throughout his entire career," Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-Minneapolis), the speaker of [...]

Unallotments: ‘bad math,’ ‘lousy government’ and ’slavish adherence to the same failed philosophy’

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s unallotment announcement today created a run on thesauruses, as his political opponents rushed to find ways to describe his plan. "The governor’s action is in line with his recent veto of the anti-bullying bill," state Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville), who’s hoping to be the DFL candidate for Pawlenty’s job next year, said in [...]

DFL taking it to the people to battle Pawlenty; Chris Coleman pleads for help for cities

While some GOPers are sitting back today and smugly proclaiming their man, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, has

I believe strongly in the journalistic mission of providing both sides of every story. In my 20-plus years as a journalist, I’ve often found myself glad that I was seeking different opinions