With a state government shutdown looming, Minnesota’s governor and Legislature are putting political agendas ahead of the state’s welfare.

Time and again, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic legislative leaders have tried to come to a budget compromise that would avoid a shutdown of services Minnesotans depend on. And time and again negotiations have collapsed in a haze of political posturing.

It’s time for the foolishness to stop. It’s time for both sides to compromise. And that means neither the governor nor his Democratic legislative antagonists will get all they want. It also means Minnesotans will not have to deal with a shutdown of government services.

There is plenty of blame to go around.

Pawlenty has been &045; in a word &045; stubborn. We don’t mean stubborn as in defending some sort of high-minded principle. Rather, the governor backed himself into a box with his no-taxes pledge to the anti-government crowd in his party, and has been dealing with that mistake since he took office. In reality, however, he has played fast and loose with semantics, opting for “fees” to raise revenue. But what the governor characterizes as a “fee” is, in most cases, a disguised tax.

For their part, Democrats in the state Senate apparently believe a shutdown will damage the governor politically. They seem all too eager to play out their political strategy on the backs of inconvenienced Minnesotans. Their political agenda is crude. Their assumption that the governor will take the heat is mistaken. If a shutdown happens at the end of the month, rest assured obstructionist lawmakers and a stubborn governor will share equally in the blame.

The warring parties have time to quit the foolishness. They have some time to do the job they were sent to St. Paul to do: represent the broad interests of Minnesota residents, especially when it means putting aside purely political considerations.

A little advice from observers in outstate Minnesota (where the shenanigans in St. Paul seem quite peculiar): Quit the nonsense. Quit the political pot-shotting. Build a compromise budget Democrats can live with and the governor can sign.

The Forum (Fargo)