LISTEN BELOW as Rep. John Lesch and reporters Mike McIntee and Marty Owings take stock of the the ruling's fallout.

Our scheduled topic was preempted this week as TruthToTell beat all other local media to the punch talking about the Minnesota State Supreme Court's 4-3 decision nullifying Gov. Tim Pawlenty's attempt to cut state spending using unallotment. The majority (Chief Justice Eric Magnuson with Justices Alan Page, Paul Anderson and Helen Meyer; dissenting were Justices G. Barry Anderson, Lorie Skjerven Gildea, and Christopher Dietzen) upheld the Ramsey County District Court in ruling that Pawlenty had, indeed, exceeded his authority in unalloting funds for programs he otherwise approved in the original budget, thus circumventing the Constitutionally guaranteed legislative budgeting process.

Listen to this wide-ranging discussion of the fallout from that ruling on state politics and governance from here on out as all sides struggle with lingering deficits and a governor (backed by Republicans in both houses) who refuses absolutely to consider revenue-raising as part of the solution in this last year of his last term in the office and off to campaign for President of the US.