Legislative Scorecard:

2005 - Leadership Breakdown Causes

Following the partisan bickering of 2004, many thought the situation at the Capitol couldn’t get much worse. Unfortunately, they were wrong. In fact, the only significant business in 2005 where Democrats and Republicans seemed to work in harmony was for passage of the bonding bill that they failed to complete in 2004.

This year, after an unproductive session and a divisive special session, Minnesotans and the rest of the nation watched in dismay as our leaders’ inability and unwillingness to work together toward the common good caused the first government shutdown in our state’s history.

Instead of leading the state to successful resolutions of important work, Governor Pawlenty’s actions contributed to gridlock. His inflexibility on funding mechanisms hamstrung efforts to pass the Clean Water Legacy Act, led to his veto of an historic bipartisan transportation funding bill and to extensive semantic quibbling over “taxes” versus “fees.”

The state government shutdown was created by state leaders and could have been avoided. The crisis then served as an excuse for not addressing priority issues, for making poor policy decisions and for an abdication of responsibility that left special interests in charge of drafting important policies.

Download full 2005 Legislative Scorecard