Gov. Tim Pawlenty will erase a deficit in Minnesota’s budget by making public schools wait longer for state aid checks and cutting aid to local governments, colleges and a slate of subsidized health care programs.

The Republican governor revealed the cuts Tuesday, the tardy culmination of a legislative session that ended a month ago without a budget deal. He is relying on a rarely used executive power called “unallotment” to erase the remaining $2.7 billion shortfall.

“State government can and should be expected to live on less in these challenging times,” Pawlenty said at a Capitol news conference. “Everybody else is.”

The governor presented the cuts as proposals, but his top finance official is required only to consult with a commission of legislative leaders before making them final. The Legislative

Advisory Commission will meet Thursday to go over the plan but can’t block the governor.

Democrats said the cuts will leave Minnesota in a shaky position as the recession lingers, costing both public- and private-sector jobs.

“In just under an hour today, Governor Pawlenty has done more damage to Minnesota than he has throughout his entire career,” said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher.

“It appears the governor is going to be leaving the state in even a harsher situation than we anticipated when he leaves office,” said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, a Democrat from St. Cloud.

Clark predicted layoffs in hospitals, nursing homes, schools and colleges, reduced police and fire protection, fewer libraries and parks and potential snowplowing problems next winter.

Pawlenty’s term runs through 2010 and he ruled out running for a third term two weeks ago.

His biggest single unallotment item will delay nearly $1.8 billion in payments to schools, a move that may force some school districts to borrow money or cut spending while they wait.

Cities, counties and townships will lose $300 million in aid, while human services spending will absorb $236 million in cuts.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said the loss to his city will be less than the $17 million reduction planned for earlier this year, but that budgeting for 2010 will require painful choices.

Rybak — who along with Kelliher, Clark and a crew of other Democrats is considering a run for governor — also criticized Pawlenty for spending time outside Minnesota speaking to Republican groups and national media.

“If he wants to stick around long enough to have a conversation, I’d love to do it,” Rybak said. “Tim Pawlenty is increasingly seemingly not focused on Minnesota, but Minnesotans need to focus on their future.”

Pawlenty’s plan moves up the scheduled end of the state’s General Assistance Medical Care program for impoverished adults by 90 days, ending it on March 1.

The University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities will each take a $50 million cut, and most state agencies will have to find a combined $33 million to cut from their budgets.

Eliot Seide, head of the largest state employees union, Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, estimated that the cuts will lead to 3,400 fewer jobs in state agencies, local governments, school districts and public higher education.

Pawlenty acknowledged that his plan will prompt layoffs, but said it’s too soon to say how many. He said his office will take a 2.25 percent cut on top of an earlier reduction, and urged the Legislature and the other constitutional officers to do the same.

The governor said he’s confident his use of the unallotment power would withstand a court test. A 1939 statute allows the top finance official, Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson, to undo or delay payments during a deficit, with the governor’s approval. It’s the third time Pawlenty has invoked the power, which had been used only three times before him.