Zellmer said that if current tax policy continues, cities such as North Mankato will continue to receive the lower level of LGA, which, factoring in inflation, “Would leave us with less than in 2003.”

LGA is used by cities for basic government services. Local officials say that reduced LGA means local property taxes have to rise to make up differences.

The governor has three days to veto bills. He can apply line-item vetoes only to spending items. If he opposes policy bills, such as the tax bill, his only choices are to veto or sign the entire bill.

Pawlenty said he hasn’t had time to go through the other bills approved by the Legislature and was unsure what, if any, line-item vetoes he might level.

Pawlenty said there were several significant bills approved that he expects to sign, including more money for K-12 education, higher education, reform of the states mental health-care system, and a veterans and military aid bill.

“We kept Minnesota’s quality of life,” Pawlenty said.

Overall, the spending bills expected to be signed by the governor increase state spending by 10 percent over the next two years, the exact increase the governor had asked for in his budget request.

There was no transportation bill passed after Pawlenty vetoed a bill and the Legislature was unable to override it. The bill contained a 7 1/2-cent-a-gallon gas tax and surcharge increase, a sales tax hike in the metro area and increases in license tabs.

“They just over-reached,” Pawlenty said of the transportation bill.

Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, who joined Pawlenty on a fly-around of the state Tuesday, said the governor had proposed “a great, $1.7 billion transportation bill with no tax hikes,” that lawmakers should have passed. That proposal relied heavily on bonding.