Prison and state court bill passes without line-item veto

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has put another small piece of the state budget puzzle in place by signing a funding bill for prisons and the state court system.

The Republican governor signed the public safety measure Friday night without making any of the line-item veto reductions he made a day earlier on a health and human services bill.

Pawlenty is still threatening to make unilateral cuts to balance the budget if an overall agreement can't be reached with House and Senate Democrats.

"The DFL-controlled Legislature violated a basic principle," Pawlenty said. "They spent more than we have, and they sent the bills to me without any plausible plan to pay for it. That's unacceptable. It's irresponsible. And now I've got to clean it up."

Pawlenty will meet with legislative leaders today at 11 a.m. to try and come to a budget agreement. The Legislature must adjourn the session by midnight Monday.