Posted at: 07/15/2009 4:33 PM
Updated at: 07/15/2009 7:19 PM
By: David Springer

Winona County Questions if Pawlenty's Unallotment is Legal

(ABC 6 NEWS)--- After Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty used his unallotment authority to balance the state's budget many said they would challenge it.

So far, only one county is challenging and it's a county right here in southeastern Minnesota.

Dwayne Voegeli and the other Winona County Commissioners may be the first to ask State Attorney General Lori Swanson for a legal opinion on Governor Tim Pawlenty's unallotments.

These unallotments cut nearly 2.7 million dollars from Minnesota's budget and took hundreds of thousands of dollars away from counties like Winona.

"Just want to ask Mrs. Swanson if what the Governor did was constitutionally legal. Why? Why, because in our country we have a system of checks and balances or we're supposed to," said Winona County Commissioner Dwayne Voegeli.

Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede, who is also president of the League of Minnesota Cities, says the League discussed doing the very same thing earlier this year.

"The feeling was that he went beyond what was really either intended or in fact legal."

However, the League decided not to act.

Brede says the League felt the first move in challenging the Governor's unallotments should come from state lawmakers.

But according to the State Attorney General's office, no one has yet issued that challenge.

Voegeli says he had no intention of being the first, but if that's the case so be it.

He also says this should not be viewed as a political or personal move.

"I would hope that if this was a Democratic Governor that we'd be doing the same thing as well. And it's not about the money. Because frankly, counties, I'm also a high school teacher, counties and school districts and others frankly would have fared worse under the House and Senate plans," said Voegeli.