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Gov. Tim Pawlenty today (July 1) in a concise paragraph to Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson approved $2.7 billion in state budget unallotments for the new two-year spending cycle starting today.

Yesterday, religious leaders gathered at the Capitol to lament the unallotment and its impact on the needy.

“I would never say the governor is a bad man,” said Rev. Peg Chemberlin, of the Minnesota Council of Churches, speaking before the Capitol steps ceremony.

“I think that’s for the governor and his God to work out together,” she said.

“I think this is a bad decision. And I think people of faith want to say it’s not a moral decision,” said Chemberlin.

“We feel our values need to be articulated in this moment of time,” she said.

“I think values are always at the center of a budget debate,” said Chemberlin.

“I think there’s time when religious rhetoric needs to be set aside. But not religious values,” she said.

“We think the budget could have happened in a much more moral way. The legislature passed a budget that did not make these cuts,” she said, referring the DFL budget proposal, one including an income tax increase on the wealthy and other revenue raisers.

Most of the congregations in the council have a “significant” outreach budget, for many ten, 20 percent of their budgets devoted to charity work, she explained.

“I think our congregations are very involved in the charity work. But there are some things beyond what a congregation can do,” said Chemberlin.

Just making good the health care cuts in the unallotment would translate into a $60,000 cost per congregation, she explained.

Chemberlin estimated that representatives from about 80 percent of Minnesota’s faith communities would attend the lament on the Capitol steps.