Starting later in October, Minnesota schools will start seeing some more of the money that state lawmakers in 2011 delayed to plug a multi-billion dollar budget deficit. Improved tax collections and less spending than anticipated allow for the state to pay $636 million to schools that were delayed to address a $5 billion budget deficit.

Issuing tobacco bonds to help fix the budget deficit was perhaps the most controversial aspect of the ultimate budget deal agreed to by Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leadership at the Capitol.

Based on fiscal review documents created by Senate staff each year, the state has cut projected spending over the decade by roughly $7 billion. The largest chunk of those reductions, roughly $3.3 billion, has occurred in the health and human services sector, the fastest growing segment of the budget.

With less than three weeks to avert a shutdown, public attention seems to be turning toward the Capitol.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal contained a long piece about the budget crunches affecting cities across the country: "Services that cities can no longer afford to provide are being contracted to private vendors, counties or even neighboring towns...."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty made good on his threat to veto a DFL budget fix approved by the Legislature and sent the bill back this afternoon, calling it "nonsensical" to increase taxes on job providers and chiding legislators for behavior that "sends a confusing and mixed message" to companies that want to produce jobs in the state.

This morning I talked by phone with Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller about the Gearin decision and the meeting between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislative leaders this Friday. Among the questions on Pogemiller's mind: What difference would it really make if the Legislature authorized a school payment shift, as Pawlenty is now asking?

So now what? The implications of Judge Kathleen Gearin's order suspending a portion of the budget cuts singlehandedly imposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty last summer will likely take months to play themselves out. But here's a quick spin through some of what Donald Rumsfeld would call the "known unknowns" to watch in the days and weeks ahead.

State finance officials last week told a House and Senate budget panel that they might have to borrow money for the first time since 1984 in order to keep state government operating. And a senior debt-management analyst conceded that the move could damage Minnesota's credit rating.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty talked about the Minnesota budget deficit on Fox News last Friday night. Notably, Pawlenty sounded a slightly different chord on K-12 education than he had in his press conference two days earlier, telling the host it would "probably" be spared cuts.