Anti-spending Republicans rallied to support Gov. Pawlenty's proposal for a constitutional Spending Accountability Amendment that would limit state spending to the amount of money the state collects in the previous two-year period.
Front and center at a state Senate Tax Committee hearing on the bill were Rep. Paul Kohls, who we're pretty sure ran for governor for about 15 minutes, and Sen. Amy Koch, who last session proposed a constitutional amendment that would guarantee your right to pay directly for medical services.
“There are going to be some difficult choices, but that’s what we were sent here for," said Koch in support of a bill that would take the difficult choices out of her hands. Nan Madden explains the issues here.
Kohls said, "It’s time to send the liberals here in St. Paul a message that ‘enough is enough.’ When you’re in a hole, stop digging. When you’re out of money, stop spending." However, Pawlenty himself didn't meet the requirements of his own amendment, as I wrote about here last month.The governor is not a liberal and was not in St. Paul during the hearing on his bill, so I guess Rep. Kolhs' warning does not apply to him.
