Governor Pawlenty's Letter to DFL Legislative Leadership

Under the date of August 11, 2009 Governor Tim Pawlenty sent the following communication to the DFL Senate Majority Leader and to the Speaker of the House of the Minnesota legislature.



We thank Governor Pawlenty for his forthright message pointing to the failure of the DFL to do their duty during the legislative session just concluded.

The quoted letter follows:



"Dear Senator Pogemiller and Speaker Kelliher:



Thank you for your recent letter regarding plans for a Minnesota Leadership Summit in early September.



My Administration and I are declining the invitation to participate in your summit. As we have witnessed over the past year, DFL legislators have done a thorough job of admiring our state's budget difficulties, but have refused or been unable to take action to address them.



The state already has an annual Minnesota Leadership Summit. It's called the legislative session and it lasts approximately five months. This past year, rather than taking timely and decisive action to deal with our budget deficit, the Legislature's DFL leadership wasted the first few months of the session. Passage of your final budget bills in the last few minutes before midnight on the final day of the session was indicative of how you managed the situation.



Rather than calling together former legislators and governors to rehash already established concerns, the Legislature's time would be better spent coming up with reasonable solutions, negotiating with my Administration, passing bills, and having them signed into law."



Sincerely,



(Governor's signature here)



Tim Pawlenty

Governor