As Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty continues his quest to limit Democratic spending, the media and his opponents are doing their best to muddy waters. (click here to read Star Trib article) Perhaps rather than declaring "Pawlenty Slashes $200 million from bonding bill" the headline should have been "Pawlenty Trims Pork Filled Bonding Bill."

As taxpayers try to sort out the truth behind the bills at the legislature, it seems possible that members of the conference committee to finalize the bonding bill decided to make political points by funding pork and cutting funding to programs that really would be to benefit Minnesotans.

One example making the news: The MN Zoo is not going to get all of the money it requested. (click here for article on zoo funding) Rep. Shelley Madore had requested $30 million on behalf of the zoo. This money would have allowed the zoo to make necessary repairs and to continue it's expansion.

In times of financial challenges, optional expansion needs to be limited. The Governor requested $7.5 million for the zoo. The Governor's request reflects an expectation that government spending be limited to those things that are necessary.

As a person who has a family membership to the zoo, I wondered how much money the zoo really needed. I left a message for zoo director Lee Ehmke to see if the zoo really does need $30 million and had my call returned within minutes. After a nice conversation it became clear that Ehmke recognized that, based on the economic issues we are facing, the Zoo wouldn't have received all it wanted but had relied on the amount requested by the Governor to fund needed repairs. As he noted, repaving the massive parking lots at the zoo can cost millions.

The Democrats cut the zoo's allocation to $2.5 million.

Clearly, the bonding bill presented to the Governor was political. The Legislature put forth a bill that cut some very important programs for the people of Minnesota and funded some ridiculous programs- our own MN pork spending- with the hope that the Governor would end up looking like the bad guy by using his veto power.

The Democrats chose to attempt to fund the brass band music library, light rail between Minneapolis and St. Paul, a volleyball center in Rochester, a regional sports center in Moorhead and countless other projects in DFL districts around the state. The pork projects sponsored by Democrats, and cut by the Governor, would have cost MN taxpayers over $200 million. While the Democrats stacked the bill with pork, they refused to include funding for a nursing facility for veterans.

Veterans or a music library? Veterans or Volleyball?

Democrats' complaints that the Governor's actions are political couldn't be more ironic. The entire bonding bill was a political move intended to push the Governor to a mass veto.

Unfortunately

for the Democrats, Pawlenty used the line item veto rather than a total veto to control spending.

Pawlenty has forced the Democrats to come back to the table to attempt to justify any additional spending. Perhaps as they try to convince voters and the Governor that the state really needs a light rail corridor between Minneapolis and St. Paul, they will also reconsider needed funding for the zoo. (click here for Star Trib article on light rail funding)

The Democrats don't want to talk about their pork. They want to fund their projects without any of us questioning either the legitimacy or the cost of their plans.

This is politics. If the Democrats want to play games with the increasingly limited dollars in taxpayer pockets, they should expect the Republicans to use the rules to defend the taxpayers.

This is not a monopoly game. The money is real. There is no free parking...

Kudos to the Governor, the members of the legislature and all of their staff for working overtime on behalf of Minnesota taxpayers.