They — as in the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty — failed.

The most important job of this legislative session was to pass a balanced state budget for the next two years without going into special session. And if you have not heard by now, they — as in the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty — failed.

Don’t think so?

Please call any of your area legislators and the governor. Ask them specifically what will happen to any number of state government services starting July 1 and ending June 30, 2011.

They can’t honestly tell you. Why? Because they failed to accomplish their most important job. They did not pass a balanced budget.

Instead, a governor who claims to want government to live within its means says he will ultimately cut state spending to balance the state budget.

But if he won’t be straightforward, we will. His idea of cutting government to live within its means is, at best, misleading.

For starters, he and legislators readily accepted federal aid to reduce the gap. And then there is his denial of tax increases, even when recommended by his own blue-ribbon panel.

But to best illustrate his insincerity about “living within your means,” look no further than how he has — and most likely will — make “cuts” to fill that gap. It’s a virtual certainty his “cuts” will really only shift costs to other levels of government and future generations of Minnesota taxpayers.

That is not living within your fiscal means. It is passing the buck — something he’s become very adroit at in setting three different state budgets.

Of course, he’s successful with it thanks largely to just enough Republican legislators who either are so enamored with “no new taxes” they don’t read their own local property tax bills, or they are politically fearful of what Pawlenty will do to them should they vote against his fiscal wishes.

And then there is the DFL and its leadership.

From the day he delivered his State of the State speech, they were incessantly critical of the governor’s budgeting plans, but noticeably short on their own detailed solutions. Beyond across-the-board cuts, they seemed to offer few ideas that truly reformed how the state does business.

And they wasted valuable time, not to mention public tax dollars, traveling the state to hold “listening sessions.” Sure, these efforts were successful in “preaching to the choir,” but — as politicians like to say — at the end of the day they obviously did not contribute to a constructive compromise.

It’s hard not to wonder what constructive things could have happened if the DFL skipped on those sessions, got its budget plans together sooner and ultimately left more time to negotiate with Pawlenty and Republicans about their differences.

But that didn’t happen and the result was they — as in the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty — failed to accomplish their most important job.

— St. Cloud Times, May 20