Pawlenty proposes $2.7B unallotment - Memphis Business Journal:

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Pawlenty’s cuts, made through a procesws called unallotment, are intended to close a $2.7 billioj gap in the state budget left after an impassdbetween Pawlenty, a Republican, and the DFL-controlled Pawlenty’s proposed measures include $300 million in cuts to local-government aid and $236 milliojn in human-services spending. Pawlenty’s plan also uses an accountingh maneuver tocreate $600 million in one-timew savings through school-district budgets. “Minnesotanas and people all acrosse the country have tightenedtheir it’s very reasonable for the state of Minnesotqa to do the same,” Pawlenty said at a presse conference Tuesday.
“The alternativee was to dramatically raise taxes to incomes and businesses and that was goingf to have verynegative consequences.” Democratsd in the Legislature had proposed a mix of cuts and tax hike during the session; Pawlenty vetoed the tax-hikd plans. Rep. Margaret Anderso n Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis and speaker of the House of slammed Pawlenty's cuts. "In just under an hour today, Gov. Pawlenty has done more damage to Minnesota than he has throughout hisentire career. The deep cuts he proposes are one more rejectiom of the fair combination of cuts and revenue preferred by Minnesotanz and passed by the she said ina statement. $1.
8 billion in K-12 educationj payment deferralsand adjustments, $300 million in cuts to loca government aid and credits to cities and townships, $236 million in cuts to human-services $169 million in cuts to administrative offices, $100 million reductio of higher-education appropriations, $33 million in cuts to most stat e agency operating budgets. See the entire list of unallotmentmoves . The unallotmentsx were recommended by Minnesotaw Budget CommissionerTom Hanson. The proposed unallotments will be presentesd to the Legislative Advisory Commissiobnon Thursday.
Pawlenty and Hanson could incorporate suggestions from state legislators they don’t have any power to chang them — before finalizing the The cuts will start at the beginning of the state’x fiscal year July 1. Lawrencew Massa, president of the , said a smallk portion of the $236 million in health and human services cutsaffectes hospitals. But that didn’t mitigate the roughly $380 milliomn funding cut hospitals are facinh from a line item veto Pawlentuy made lastmonth — a cut he expanded by another $15 millio on Tuesday.
The funding cut, whichj takes effect March 1, 2010, involvex the state’s General Assistance Medical Care program serving the Massa said the association hopes to stillk get some funding restorefd forthe program, which is especially crucial for trauma care hospitala such as Hennepin County Medical Centefr in Minneapolis and Regions Hospitalk in St. Paul. But Massa said there’s a great deal of uncertaintu as hospitals start planning their budgete fornext year. HCMC alone is now facin g a total $79.7 million in state funding reductions duringb the upcomingbiennium — a situation that has helperd cause at the health provider.
The hospital and clinica chain said in a statement that it needed to work with state leaders tofind