Everyone in Minnesota is now familiar with a new word: unallotment.

It’s not in the Oxford American Dictionary. It’s not in the Merrian-Webster Dictionary. It’s not in the Dictionary.com dictionary.

It’s not in the dictionary many American English writers and editors regard as the best and most comprehensive ever: Webster’s New International Dictionary Second Edition, printed in 1934.

However, in that dictionary, buried in a long list of un- words, is unallotted. It says it means not allotted.

Apparently, Minnesota has to be different. We are the only state in the union that uses this power, and our governors use it rarely.

Basically, the word means reduction. With line-item veto, a governor can cut spending before it is approved — before it is allotted. With unallotment, it is rescinding already approved funding. It is a measure initially intended for emergency cuts only.

Is the Minnesota budget in a true emergency? Or is it an emergency of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s making by not wanting to meet in the middle with the DFL Party leaders in the legislative majority?

How state funding is distributed is now in the hands of one person, rather than determined through a series of compromises by many leaders.

Good? Bad? That’s up to you, but most people vote for legislators because they want representation. For a Republican Party worrying a lot lately about disenfranchised voters, it sure seems to be a move that will disenfranchise voters.