Special session belongs to Governor Tim Pawlenty

07/07/2005

Letter to: Grand-Rapids Herald-Review
Last Updated: Friday, July 01st, 2005

Editor:

Let’s be clear about whose Special Session this is- it belongs to
Governor Tim Pawlenty. After over 34 years as a member of the House of
Representatives, I have seen many special sessions. The most successful
have always been handled very differently than the current media circus.

The reasonable and most productive way to resolve the unfinished
business of a regular session is for the members of the Legislature to
return to their districts, while the governor works with House and
Senate leaders to negotiate a budget agreement. After an agreement is
reached, a special session is then called, bringing all the members back
to St. Paul to hear the final agreement and vote on the finished package
in a one or two-day special session.

This way of reaching an agreement has worked well in the past. It saves
money and time, and eliminates some of the political games we have seen
in the past few weeks. If the governor had truly been committed to
getting the job done and avoided these theatrics, I believe an agreement
would have been reached in time to avoid any talk of a state government
shut-down.

So, governor, this one is all yours. You’re in charge and you make the
rules. It’s unfortunate that you didn’t study the past to learn how to
do it well.

- Representative Irv Anderson, International Falls
Former Speaker of the House