Eden Prairie News - Comments

There's also Pepitos near

markaweber — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:40:33 -0600

There's also Pepitos near the intersection of Highway 5 and County Road 4 (excellent!) and Don Pablo's along I-494.

(Mark A. Weber is publisher of the Eden Prairie News. He can be reached at mweber@swpub.com.)

What other Mexican food

Leah Shaffer — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:07:43 -0600

What other Mexican food options are there in EP? As far as I can tell, the City has this new Baja Sol, Qdoba, Chipotle, what am I forgetting?

I believe all of the above

Michaela Knower — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:45:42 -0600

I believe all of the above information regarding the aviation industry as a whole may be accurate however, I do not see any reference from Tim Ashenfelter about anything other than the Charter aspect of business. Assuming the option to fly charter is only for the wealthy is a misconception. Charter flights can be an economical alternative to commercial flying in certain circumstances. And can certainly be a less expensive option than aircraft ownership.

FRANKEN WINNER COLEMAN TO

Ponytail — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:28:05 -0600

FRANKEN WINNER COLEMAN TO BLOCK

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- A state election board on Monday will announce Democrat Al Franken has defeated Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, state officials told CNN Sunday.

A board will say Al Franken won the U.S. Senate race by 225 votes, Minnesota's secretary of state says.

The canvassing board on Monday will say a recount determined Franken won by 225 votes, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie told CNN.

However, Coleman's campaign, which contends the recount should have included about 650 absentee ballots it says were improperly rejected in the initial count, has indicated it will challenge the certification.

Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said his team believes the recount process was broken and that "the numbers being reported will not be accurate or valid."

"The effort by the Franken campaign, supported by the secretary of state, to exclude improperly rejected absentee ballots is indefensible and disenfranchises hundreds of Minnesota voters," Sheehan said.

After the results are certified, Coleman's campaign will have seven days to file a challenge.

The initial count from the November 4 election put Coleman, a first-term senator, 215 votes ahead of Franken -- known for his stint on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and as a former talk-show host on progressive radio network Air America.

Don't Miss
Tense moments in Minnesota Senate recount
The slim margin triggered an automatic recount.

During the recount, Franken's campaign alleged that thousands of absentee ballots had been improperly rejected and asked that they be counted. The state's Supreme Court eventually ordered that rejected absentee ballots be counted if local officials and each campaign could agree that the selected ballots were rejected mistakenly.

About 950 initially rejected absentee ballots were counted Saturday after all parties agreed on them. However, Coleman's campaign said about 650 other rejected absentee ballots -- many of them from pro-Coleman areas -- also were improperly rejected and should have been counted.

The Coleman campaign has also alleged that more than 100 ballots may have been accidentally counted twice and may have unfairly benefited Franken.

"When a candidate is leading because of double counted votes, and votes that get counted even when ballots don't exist, it clearly means that a [post-election challenge] is the only likely remedy to ensure a fair outcome," Sheehan said.

Franken's attorney, Marc Elias, in a statement said: "The next step is the canvass board's meeting tomorrow, where we have every expectation they will declare that Al Franken won this election."

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, who oversaw Saturday's tallying of the 950 improperly rejected absentee ballots, said the only thing left for the canvassing board to do Monday is certify the numbers. The board's meeting will convene at 2:30 p.m.

"Candidates may have objections or suggestions or comments that they want to make," Gelbmann said. "I would assume the canvassing board will allow that as long as they're brief."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, issued a statement Sunday declaring Franken the winner and expressing confidence Franken would remain on top following any legal battle.

"There is no longer any doubt who will be the next senator from Minnesota," Schumer said. "Even if all the ballots Coleman claims were double counted or erroneously added were resolved in his favor, he still wouldn't have enough votes to win."

Schumer also said it is "crucial" Minnesota's second seat in the Senate not go empty, implying Franken should be seated when the rest of the Senate convenes to be sworn in Tuesday.

Minnesota's other seat is held by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has pledged a GOP filibuster if the Democrat-controlled Senate attempts to seat Franken before all legal battles play out and before Minnesota's Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, can co-sign the secretary of state's certificate.

Ritchie said the state has no problem with not having two sworn-in senators Tuesday until the process is completed."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/04/minnesota.senate.race/index.html

Antagnostic Responses There

zerotwo — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:14:36 -0600

Antagnostic Responses

There is public info which is readily available to all residents.

One is a district map which shows how the candidates' support was distributed district by district.

The other can be obtained through the city clerk which shows that one candidate out spent two of his oponents double and the other triple.

Those variables will be looked at by candidates going forward. It's the key to winning and it's certainly a legit discussion to have.

Discussion...

Post Off Topic This post is

Ponytail — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:48:42 -0600

Post Off Topic

This post is clearly off topic for this particular RECOUNT forum. Why do you think Gino would post it here? I think most of you know why. It's just one more insiduous atttempt at being a bully. Is it possible Gino doesn't know how to start his own forum or blog? Doubtful.

The EPN should try to follow some sensible guidelines and apply them to everyone. Here are some from the NYT that should address some of the problems:

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

Why do you moderate readers' comments?

(The NYT's)Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we have created a space where readers can exchange intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers and generally cannot alter a comment once it is posted.

Real names are required for their blog. Of course few would know each other because of the massive audience. Maybe that should have been the way to go. But, the etiquette part is what's important regardless of name.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/faq/comments.html

The EPN has generally failed to moderate and elminiate inflammatory unnecessary posts. This definitely does not contribute a positive experience for many people. The result is people don't want to visit and they don't want to post.

That's really a shame.

Richardson quits. Illinois

Gino G — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:34:21 -0600

Richardson quits. Illinois and now New Mexico?

WASHINGTON – New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract.

Richardson's withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the New Mexico case.

A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's political activities won a New Mexico transportation contract worth more than $1 million. Richardson said in a statement issued by the Obama transition office that the investigation could take weeks or months but expressed confidence it will show he and his administration acted properly.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_el_pr/richardson

Usual Forward Leaning

zerotwo — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:06:53 -0600

Usual Forward Leaning Projections Don’t Fly

Evidently Tim Ashenfelter of ASI Jet Center thinks Eden Prairie residents are pretty uninformed. Tim wrote that “he’s experiencing a surge in the need for services” at his Fixed Based Operation at Flying Cloud Airport, Eden Prairie News, December 31, 2008.

Tim’s take flies in the face of news that the entire industry is experiencing a severe downturn, not a surge.

Richard Santulli, the chief executive of Netjets, the private jet company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company led by Warren E. Buffett says the “The jet market stinks.”

And Santulli ought to know.

To control costs, companies including Citigroup and Time Warner are selling their jets. Alcatel-Lucent has allowed leases on two jets to expire without renewing them and has put its third jet up for sale.

According to the New York Times, “jet brokers, who normally have a worldwide clientele, say the market has constricted abroad in recent months as well.

“Our inventory is up dramatically, and demand is way down,” said Josh Messinger, of J. Messinger Corporate Jet Sales, a jet broker.

The NYTimes reported that “Congress stripped away the deductibility of personal travel for executives in 2004 by allowing companies to deduct from taxes only the rough amount of a first-class ticket, far less than private jet travel costs.

Corporate chiefs concerned about public scrutiny are more inclined to look for alternatives than to return to the airlines. Some are examining whether they should take delivery of planes already ordered. One company had been looking to upgrade its two planes. “Now they are weighing whether or not to buy new planes or keep what they have,” Mr. Quinn said.

Some are downsizing. “Some of these guys just move the deck chairs around,” he said. “They get rid of the big planes and go to fractional ownership, or they go to charter, or they come back into the marketplace with a leased plane,” he said.

But every part of the private jet industry has been affected. Netjets lets people buy a fractional ownership in planes, and it sells Marquis jet cards that give customers access to the fleet in 25-hour increments. Those businesses, too, are seeing a slowdown.

“People have lost a lot of money, and are careful about how they spend it,” Mr. Santulli said.

“I have never seen it like this,” said Mike Silvestri, the chief executive of Flight Options, which sells shares in jets as well as plans that cover a fixed number of hours a year of private jet use. “Customers are just not flying as much.” Some customers are stretching out the hours bought for a single year over a longer period.

Flight Options has laid off 134 people, including 104 pilots, and hopes it will be able to bring them back.

Mr. Santulli said that the jet market usually picks up three months after the stock market has reached a bottom. There is no indication of an uptick yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/business/25jets.html?em

Business Travel online reported in October of 2008 that “despite the lift commercial capacity cuts can give private aviation, and that must be what Ashenfelter is talking about, in October of 2008 Honeywell said "taxes, user fees, noise regulations and ease-of-use issues such as temporary flight restrictions in the United States" continue to pose concerns on flight usage among corporate flight departments. Still, Honeywell said companies continue to expand their fleets. The forecast reports shows this year has set a "record delivery pace" for business jets, representing the fifth consecutive year of expansion "since the last industry slowdown in 2003."

But, while the business aviation market continued to set records in aircraft deliveries in 2008 and is on target to surpass them again in 2009, the industry forecast released points to some weakening in demand among corporate flight department deployments of private aircraft.

http://www.btnonline.com/businesstravelnews/headlines/frontpage_display....

So what you have from ASI's Ashefelter is information based on forward leaning aviation projections from one corporate subsidiary to the more objective reporting from at least three different jet brokers. Also an article in the Alliance for Aviation Across American gives even more contradicting evidence that Tim Ashenfelter is selling rather than telling.

In October this year, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that "with a weakening economy and aviation gasoline at $5.49 a gallon, Paul DeSanctis is selling his Piper Seneca twin-engine airplane.

"It's very expensive to maintain and operate," said the technology manager at Commerce Bank in Mount Laurel. "With all the uncertainty in the economy, it's maybe not the best time to have a toy. Obviously, an airplane is not a necessity."

Airport officials here and across the country are seeing a decline in corporate and private flight activity: More airplanes are parked on tarmacs. The inventory of used jets for sale is at its highest level since 2003. Fewer students are enrolling in flight schools.

And demand is down in the last 30 to 60 days for charter flights, said Herb Hortman, owner of family-run Hortman Aviation Services Inc. at Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

"People can only pump $60 or $80 in their car fuel tank so many times - that money has to come from somewhere," Hortman said.

The National Business Aviation Association, representing companies that use business aircraft, has seen "a slowdown in virtually every measure of business-aviation operations," said Ed Bolen, president of the Washington-based trade group. "We're seeing from a 5 percent to 18 percent change vs. the same time last year."

Corporations are flying their business jets less frequently, or are consolidating executives' trips to cut costs.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., based in New Jersey, confirmed last month that it was shutting its aviation operation at Trenton-Mercer Airport, selling four aircraft and dismissing about 32 pilots, mechanics, and other aviation personnel. "It is part of our continuous improvement efforts to reduce corporate overhead," pharmaceutical company spokeswoman Sonia Choi said.

The business-jet market in the United States is also showing signs of peaking, although the backlog of orders remains strong, and deliveries next year will be at record levels, according to a Wall Street report.

UBS Securities L.L.C. analysts David Strauss and Cristina Fernandez said in the report that business-jet flight activity - takeoffs and landings - was down 18 percent in August from the same time a year earlier. That included declines at the three busiest corporate aircraft airports: Teterboro, N.J.; White Plains, N.Y.; and Washington-Dulles, Va.

The analysts said business jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation had the largest decline, 12 percent, in takeoffs and landings in the first eight months through August, with Bombardier Aerospace down 11 percent; Hawker Beechcraft Corp., 9 percent; Cessna Aircraft Co., 6 percent; and Gulfstream International Group Inc., 3 percent.

"Demand for business jets is largely a function of corporate profits," Joseph Nadol, JPMorgan Chase & Co. aerospace and defense analyst, noted in a recent report. With U.S. corporate profit growth likely to decline this year, a slowdown in business-jet deliveries could occur by 2010 and a production decline is likely in 2011, he wrote.

But strong business-jet orders in other markets, such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, should help mute the downturn, Nadol said.

The U.S. market is "still growing, but slowing down," said Roger Whyte, Cessna senior executive vice president. "The real growth is in other places. We are seeing a bigger percentage of international sales."

While orders for new aircraft are lower this year than last, the Wichita, Kan., manufacturer of general aviation aircraft still has a $16 billion backlog of orders.

Danielle Boudreau, spokeswoman for Bombardier Business Aircraft, which makes the Learjet and longer-range Global Express private jet, said there was a "softening" of the U.S. market, but stopped short of calling it a slowdown.

John Butterworth, general manager at Atlantic Aviation at Philadelphia International Airport, has seen "a dramatic downturn in business. We're probably 30 percent off our business, year over year. Fuel sales are a good reflection of how the business is going. The fuel sales are way down."

Butterworth said that based on conversations with pilots and salespeople, "there is a glut of used aircraft on the market for sale."

Back to Eden Prairie's ASI Jet Center, we realize Tim is just trying to stay in business and is at best a salesman, but even wealthy Eden Prairie residents who could afford to charter or purchase aren’t buying at all, and certainly not at
regular prices.

The reality is the economy is grounding many of Flying Cloud’s users. According to one airport manager in Philadelphia “people are not interested in buying airplanes right now. "Everybody is scared. I'm seeing fuel sales down, maintenance is down, flying is down."

http://www.aviationacrossamerica.org/pubs/Economy_grounding_.cfm

But, you’re not going to hear the actual national trends from MAC or any of Flying Cloud staff, it users or anyone directly associated with the airport.

What you will hear is more PR. You won't hear the facts: numbers of FCM operations have steadily decreased each decade, though noise disturbances continue to increase; how do they do that? While the industry is suffering from a severe economic downturn, fees, and restrictions are on the horizon, and MAC turns a blind eye....

More News at wwww.zeroexpansion.org

Franken 225 Lead Franken

Ponytail — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:37:42 -0600

Franken 225 Lead

Franken increases lead over Coleman to 225 votes
by Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
January 3, 2009

"St. Paul, Minn. — Democratic Senate challenger Al Franken added 176 votes to his lead in one of the tightest races in U.S. history today.

A count of more than 950 previously unopened absentee ballots went heavily in his favor as the state's official recount finally approached a finish.

"We are confident that he will win… by what is not a large margin, but what is a comfortable margin," said Franken's lead attorney, Marc Elias. "But 225 is still a close election."

Opening ballotsThe tally leaves only the formal declaration of the vote totals left to complete. The five-person state canvassing board is set to meet Monday to review the findings and direct Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to certify the results.

It's unlikely, though, that the board's action will finish the race.

Fritz Knaak, an attorney for Republican Norm Coleman, said that it is "virtually certain" that the result is heading for a court challenge.

Another Coleman attorney, Matt Haapoja, was actually drafting what appeared to be the paperwork for a court challenge -- and another potential recount -- as he sat in the State Office Building waiting for state elections officials to finish processing the final ballots on Saturday."

More at:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/03/senate_recount_s...

Coleman: Cease Counting ST.

Ponytail — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:24:45 -0600

Coleman: Cease Counting

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- One of the last remaining steps in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race recount was temporarily halted Saturday morning when attorneys with Republican incumbent Norm Coleman's campaign attempted to stop the counting of about 950 improperly rejected absentee ballots.

GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, left, and Democrat Al Franken are in a battle for a Minnesota Senate seat.

Coleman trails Democrat Al Franken by about 50 votes.

The state's Supreme Court had ordered that rejected absentee ballots be counted if local officials and each campaign could agree that the selected ballots were rejected mistakenly.

Local officials identified 1,350 such ballots. The Franken campaign wanted to count those and leave it at that, but the Coleman camp took issue with hundreds of them and sought to add about 650 more.

Since the Franken campaign would not agree to these ballots, the Coleman campaign sought the intervention of the state's high court. The court is considering the request but has not set a hearing at this point, and it is still unclear whether it will.

At the start of a meeting Saturday as the secretary of state's office counted the 950 rejected ballots, Coleman attorney Tony Trimble asked Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann to cease any counting.

Read the article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/03/minnesota.senate.recount/index.ht...

Coleman Denied Supreme Court

Ponytail — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:52:46 -0600

Coleman Denied

Supreme Court denies Coleman motion; extends ballot deadline
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
December 24, 2008

St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied a motion by Republican Senator Norm Coleman's campaign calling for an investigation into whether double counting occurred in the U.S. Senate recount.

The court's order upholds a ruling by the State Canvassing Board rejecting challenged votes based on duplicate ballots. But the court said it can't determine whether some votes have been counted twice.

Coleman's campaign has argued that dozens of voters in 25 precincts, many in Democrat-leaning Minneapolis, may have gotten two votes when election judges couldn't feed their ballots through counting machines and made duplicates.

Andy Barr, spokesman for Democrat Al Franken, said he's pleased with the decision.

"I think Minnesotans have been waiting a long time for this process to come to a close and again, this lawsuit was an attempt by the Coleman campaign to drag out that process and undermine the results," Barr said. "I think the court made a good ruling for the people of Minnesota."

Coleman Campaign attorney Fritz Knaak said the Minnesota Supreme Court decision "virtually guarantees that this will be decided in an election contest." "We're prepared to file an election contest," Knaak said.

Knaak wouldn't say if one would be filed, but said he's still confident that they'll win. He also said that the election winner cannot be certified until the contest phase is complete.

Also today, justices extended the deadline to count any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots.

The Minnesota Supreme Court order requires local elections officials to identify any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots, and ship those ballots to the Secretary of State's office by Jan. 2. The chief elections official for the Secretary of State is then required to open and count the ballots by Jan. 4.

The court originally ordered local elections officials to open the ballots and notify the Secretary of State's office of any changes in the results by Dec. 31. The Secretary of State's office and the campaigns for Al Franken and Norm Coleman requested the extension to ensure the privacy of those voters who had their ballots rejected.

Elections officials estimate that as many as 1,600 absentee ballots were wrongly rejected. Those votes are one of the remaining issues to determine the winner in the race. Franken currently leads Coleman by just 47 votes.

----

(The Associate Press contributed to this report)

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/24/supreme_court_ex...

Mark, Karla and

Gino G — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:59:59 -0600

Mark, Karla and Leah....
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Recount Far From

Ponytail — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:41:43 -0600

Recount Far From Over

Canvassing board report shows Franken with 48-vote lead
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
December 22, 2008

St. Paul, Minn. — "Democrat Al Franken now has a 48-vote lead over Republican Norm Coleman in the recount in the U.S. Senate race.

The latest figure comes from a draft report of the ballot challenges put forward from the two campaigns.

The Secretary of State's office will present the latest numbers to the State Canvassing Board Tuesday in what will be a busy day for the campaigns.

The draft report from the Secretary of State's office assesses all of the challenges put forward by both campaigns. The canvassing board's allocation of votes, and the challenges withdrawn from both campaigns, gives Franken a 48-vote lead over Coleman. But, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said that margin is far from certain.

"It is impossible to say one candidate is either ahead or behind until it's completely done," Ritchie said.

Ritchie said there are still outstanding issues. Among them is the sorting and counting of any wrongly-rejected absentee ballots and a court case regarding votes that may have been counted twice.

For their part, both campaigns are playing it cool about the latest results. Andy Barr, with Al Franken's campaign, said he couldn't comment on the latest numbers since the campaign has been crunching their own numbers that showed them leading by 35 to 50 votes.

"We're feeling very confident that Al Franken is going to be the next Senator from Minnesota," Barr said.

Barr said the campaign is still waiting to see how many wrongly-rejected absentee ballots are identified and counted. The Minnesota Supreme Court ordered the Secretary of State's office, the two campaigns and local elections officials to create a process to identify and count as many as 1,600 ballots.

The court set a deadline of Dec. 31 for local elections officials to submit any new vote totals to the state. Barr said the Franken campaign pushed to get those ballots counted and is confident they'll keep the lead after the process is done.

"Given how close the overall pool of ballots was, 42 percent to 42 percent, it strikes us as pretty unlikely that Senator Coleman would be able to make up a 50-vote lead over the court of a 1,000 or 1,500 absentee ballots," Barr said.

Coleman campaign manager Culleen Sheehan acknowledges Franken may have a lead at this phase of the recount process. But he argues that the recount is flawed.

"Their lead is an artificial lead midway through the certification process," Sheehan said.

Coleman's campaign is urging the Minnesota Supreme Court to stop the canvassing board from counting, what it says, are as many as 150 ballots that may have been double-counted during the recount. They also want the court to order local elections officials to check for any other double counted ballots

"I think there's clear evidence that this does exist, that's why we're going to the Supreme Court," Sheehan said. "It's voter disenfranchisement to count some ballots twice but not every ballot twice. It's one voter, one vote and we just want to ensure that that process is fair and upheld and that it's fair and legal."

Attorneys for Al Franken say there's no evidence of double counting and say Coleman's campaign is using the double counting argument to taint the process.

The court has scheduled oral arguments for Tuesday afternoon on the subject.

Meanwhile, Secretary Ritchie said the Supreme Court may also have to consider a plan to protect the privacy of voters who had their absentee ballots rejected. In some counties, Ritchie said there are only a few absentee ballots that may have been wrongly set aside. The list of those who had their ballots rejected has been made public.

"If the vote in a county changes and there's only one ballot that has been opened, then the identity of that person and the change in the vote can be easily put together," Ritchie said. "So therefore the privacy of that person's vote cannot be protected under that procedure. So we're going to suggest ways to make sure that the privacy of the votes is ensured while we complete this process."

Ritchie said Attorney General Lori Swanson's office would present the plan to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. He wouldn't release the details of the plan, and referred questions to Swanson. Officials from her office did not return calls for this report."

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/22/early_report_sho...

Franken Up 285 Live

Ponytail — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:08:26 -0600

Franken Up 285

Live Streaming Video

http://www.startribune.com/

Gov Moderate City

Ponytail — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:06:36 -0600

Gov Moderate City Cuts

Pawlenty says local government cuts will be 'modest'

December 19, 2008

St. Paul, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Tim Pawlenty says the budget cuts he's about to announce will reach into local government aid, but he says the amounts will be a small fraction of city budgets.

Pawlenty is set to outline his fix for a short-term $426 million deficit on Friday afternoon.

He says cuts to cities and counties will be "quite modest," amounting to "dramatically less" than 5 percent of total aids and property tax levies in cities.

The Republican governor was speaking on his weekly radio show on WCCO-AM.

He says the state aid reductions shouldn't prompt local governments to reduce police and fire services.

Pawlenty spoke about the cuts in response to a call from a St. Paul firefighter who urged the governor to help his city out."

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/19/pawlenty_local_g...