Updated: 02/18/2009 8:27 PM KSTP.com | 
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By: Tom Hauser, Chief Political Reporter
HAUSER: Senate recount vs. budget crisis: When will it all end?
Here is the $5 billion to $7 billion question: Which will Minnesota have first: A balanced budget or a second U.S. Senator? For now, it's simply too close to call. According to the Minnesota Constitution, the legislature "shall not meet in regular session...after the first Monday following the third Saturday in May of any year." For the cryptically impaired, that means this year the legislature must end the regular session by Monday, May 18th. As for the Senate Recount trial, the deadline appears to be the 12th of Never. Lets take a moment to handicap the race between these two momentous events.
The legislature got a head start on the recount trial by convening on January 6th with a $5 billion deficit hanging over its head. Three weeks later Governor Pawlenty unveiled a budget plan that calls for a two-percent reduction in state spending, which doesn't sound like much until you consider the budget tends to jump eight to 12 percent every year. At first, Democratic leaders calmly said they'd work with the governor on that budget plan even though he refuses to consider any tax increase. By "at first," I mean about two minutes. That's about how long it took for one DFL leader to describe part of the governor's budget proposal as a Ponzi scheme. Comparing the governor to Bernie Madoff and Tom Petters is not exactly a recipe for political harmony. On March 3rd when the next budget forecast is released, the doomsayers claim we're likely to see the deficit balloon to about $7 billion. The federal economic stimulus money Minnesota will receive might take care of about $2 billion of that deficit. That puts us back to the original $5 billion deficit still to erase. How is this budget battle going to end? Badly, I think. Just look to California where they're trying to balance a $42 billion budget deficit. It's a much bigger state with a much bigger deficit. But the problems are similar. Democrats say taxes need to be raised along with spending cuts. Republicans are in disarray trying to resist tax increases. The Senate Republican leader agreed to a package of tax increases and spending cuts with Democrats and Governor Schwarzenegger. The Republican leader was promptly voted out of his leadership position by his fellow Republicans. Schwarzenegger is threatening to lay off 10,000 or 20,000 state workers if a deal isn't reached soon. It's a mess. It could also be Minnesota in mid-May, minus the body-building governor. Jesse "The Body" Ventura is retired to Mexico, probably chuckling about his old buddy Arnold.
As for the Senate Recount trial, it got underway January 26th. We are now in our fourth week of mind-numbing babble about absentee ballot applications, mismatched signatures, the universe of ballots and a "Nunc Pro Tunc Order Correcting Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Petitioners' Motion for Summary Judgment." That last one makes my head hurt. This might make your head hurt: There is no end in sight to this Senate trial! No matter how many court decisions go against them, Norm Coleman's attorneys bounce back up like Rock-Em, Sock-Em Robots and await the next punch...or prepare to throw one of their own. Al Franken's attorneys treat this like a 15-round heavyweight bout where they know a knockout punch might never come, they're just hoping for a split decision to go their way. The "universe of ballots" that might be added to the count has dwindled from 12,000 to 4,800 and now to about 3,300 or 3,500. No one seems to know, exactly. But if the total number gets down to 224, it's over for Norm Coleman because he trails by 225...or 248. No one seems to know that exactly, either.
So which will happen first: balanced budget or a second U.S. Senator? I have no idea. But with apologies to Johnny Mathis, Donny Osmond, Elvis Presley, Petula Clark and 30 other singers who have recorded the song, I now think they'll both end on the "12th of Never." And that's a long, long time.
