Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin gave Governor Tim Pawlenty an unexpected and unappreciated surprise last week when she declared that his decision to unallot budgeted funds from a particular state government food program was unconstitutional. You can read more about the decision in this link from the Star Tribune: Judge Rules Against Pawlenty on Budget Cuts. If you’d like to read the judge’s decision, you can find it at this link: Judge Gearin Decision.
I’m sure that it was a difficult series of decisions for Governor Pawlenty to address the state’s budget deficit in 2009. Cutting a food program for low income people is a tough choice to make when balancing a budget.
But the judge’s decision, while it may restore state funding to that program, is only going to make the 2010 budget process that much more difficult for the state. The judge did not make new money appear. She merely shifted the budget cuts from one program to another. The judge may also have created an environment where people aggrieved by political decisions of the Governor and State Legislature about state government program funding will use the courts, rather than the normal political process, to secure state funding in the future.
Regardless of one’s politics, that’s not a very good system to get started.
