Minnesota Shutdown Stirs Debate Over Who Gets Paid

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Associated Press

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 11, 2011 at 4:38 PM ET


ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) —

While thousands of Minnesota employees go without paychecks because the state government is shut down, many lawmakers are still being paid. And the list of workers whose services are deemed "essential" includes the governor's housekeeper and his personal chef.

As the shutdown entered its second full week Monday, with no end in sight, politicians and public employees traded accusations over who's getting paid, who isn't and why.

"None of them should be getting paid," said Mike Lindholt, a Department of Transportation maintenance worker idled by the shutdown. "If you don't do your job, you don't get paid. That's how it is for most people."

The political leaders whose budget dispute caused the shutdown are still entitled to collect their pay, and more than half of them are. Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican Senate majority leader have both declined their checks, as have some rank-and-file lawmakers of both parties. But many others are still collecting checks, including the Republican House speaker.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/11/us/AP-US-Minnesota-Government-Shutdown.html?ref=news

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Only essential workers are to be paid.

Are these legislators essential?

[SomeGuyInEagan]

1. Of state legislators, the majority in both parties continue to recieve checks ...

... according to this Strib story:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/125271659.html

[Brickbat]

2. Nice that the article waited until the very end to talk about how the chef is now being paid by

Dayton himself.

[Iliyah]

3. They shouldn't get paid nor

have health care coverage period. Take away their credits cards also and any other perks that they may have. Shut them down also.

The only services running for the people should be police, fire fighters, and health care, and schools.

[Ragnarok]

4. I believe Dayton was worth $22 million...

...at last count (Target Corp. heir) so fortunately, he can afford it until he is reimbursed by the State. I wish my boss was that loaded and generous.

[tanyev]

5. Question: Why are all the Dems referred to as DFL?

I've never seen that before.

[dflprincess]

7. Democratic Farmer Labor party

Once upon a time the Democrats and Farmer Laborites were two separate parties. In the 1930s the Farmer Laborites enjoyed a great deal of success including electing Floyd B. Olson governor. But by 1944 the two parties were splitting the votes of the same groups of voters so they decided to merge. Hubert Humphrey had a lot to do with the merger and, after the WWII ended, Hubert as well as some others (I think Orville Freeman may have been involved in this) did their best to purge the old Farmer Laborites from the party (using the "Red scare" as an excuse). Paul Wellstone, who famously said he belonged to the Democratic wing of the Democratic party really belonged to the Farmer Labor wing of the DFL. Bernie Sanders would make a good Farmer Laborite.

When Amy Klobuchar was running for the senate her dad, Jim, would sometimes fill in for her. He grew up on the Iron Range which was a stronghold for the Farmer Labor party. I heard one of the speeches he gave and it would have done the old party proud. I had some hopes for Amy thinking that if that was what she grew up hearing she might turn out better than I thought she would.... I was more wrong than I could have imagined.

Scarlet Woman once had a post where she quoted an old Farmer Laborite she knew as saying the biggest mistake the Farmer Labor party ever made was letting the Democrats into it.

That statement gets more true everyday.

(Just as an aside, Olson, Humphrey & Wellstone as well as Gov. Rudy Perpich are all buried in the same cemetary. My niece & I were just there "visiting" my grandfather & then I dragged the kid around giving her a history lesson.)

[tanyev]

8. Interesting. Thanks for the info.

[freshwest]

6. I guess the media in MN are pro-GOP? There should be outrage over this there.