Seldom, if ever, has a Minnesota governor produced a budget plan so dependent on one-time money. It comes in the form of $2.6 billion in federal stimulus dollars, $1.3 billion in delayed payments to schools, and $1 billion in borrowing against future state revenues -- a feature DFLers have taken to calling his "Ponzi scheme."

Pawlenty proposes to use those non-recurring funds to pay for recurring expenses -- something that's ordinarily a fiscal management no-no. This situation is different, he said, for two reasons: The state is experiencing an economic emergency, in which the usual rules must be bent. And, he indicated, he believes the state can function adequately without that one-time money in 2012-13. 

He went so far as to project the expenditures that would be required to keep the state budget balanced after the one-time money is gone. It's in those numbers that the inevitable pain appears: Pawlenty envisions spending 25 percent less than forecast in those years on health care and welfare; 19 percent less on aid to cities and counties; 12 percent less on higher education.

But Pawlenty does not forecast a cut in K-12 education spending, which consumes about 40 percent of the state budget. He seeks a 2 percent increase for K-12 in the coming biennium over 2008-09.  Even his projection for 2012-13, when the one-time money he books in the next two years is gone, shows a 2.75 percent K-12 increase from the previous biennium. Ironically, it's Senate DFLers, public education's traditional allies, who say they are willing to cut education spending this year, rather than approve a budget that's excessively dependent on one-time money.