Minnesota Braces for Government Shutdown

[Blue_Tires]

Source: NYT

With only hours remaining before most Minnesota services will shut down if the state does not approve a new budget, political leaders met behind closed doors on Thursday but emerged again with no deal on a spending plan and no signs of a resolution in sight.

And so, on the eve of a holiday weekend, Minnesotans were bracing for the possibility that the state’s parks and the Minnesota Zoo will be closed, hunting and fishing licenses will not be issued, and the state’s lottery system and racetracks will shut down. By Thursday afternoon, workers were already closing the state’s 84 major rest areas along highways. Thousands of state workers were preparing to be sent home without pay, and contractors were getting ready to walk away from a hundred road construction projects that are underway.

While the budget year begins on Friday in many states, Minnesota was one of several that had yet to seal a deal by Thursday afternoon, but was one of the few in the nation making immediate preparations for a shutdown. The last such standoff in Minnesota came under an entirely different set of leaders in 2005, but involved the shutdown of far fewer services and lasted a matter of days.

Since early this year, the politicians in St. Paul have been locked in a battle over how to solve budget woes under a divided government. Republicans, who took control of both chambers of the Legislature last fall, urged sharp cuts and a cap on spending to the $34 billion that the state expected to take in over the next two years. Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat elected in the fall, called for collecting more in income taxes from the highest earners to solve an anticipated $5 billion deficit and to spare cuts in services to the most vulnerable.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/us/01minnesota.html

[MineralMan]

1. Things are about to get serious around here, it seems.

Worker who are about to be sent home are doing some interesting things, like locking gates at unattended boat launch ramps on many lakes. They're sending a message to the many people who will be heading to the lake for the weekend. These closures won't last, of course. Someone will have a bolt cutter and the ramps will be re-opened, but the message will be sent. The gates won't be relocked.

[mzmolly]

8. Please let the Pioneer Press know what we think about who is to blame.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1395648

[Arctic Dave]

2. Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!

Solidarity!

[DFW]

3. As long as those who finance Republican legislators are never among the "most vulnerable"

There will never be Republican support for sparing cuts in services to the most vulnerable

[StarsInHerHair]

4. I'm hoping that non-insane Republicans will notice the real-world effects

of their disastrous policies..........but they are already in denial over W bailing out the Banksters, creating the deficit, making the Iraqi 'provisional gov' Republican-only........

[Thor_MN]

5. For those not current, the Rethugs feel their initial proposal was a compromise and have refused

to budge at all. They keep blaming Dayton for not negotiating, but he has made more than one move towards their demands. They are absolutely oblivious to the fact that they have offered nothing and insist that they get everything they want.

[mzmolly]

10. I don't think they're oblivious at all. They're always feigning compromise, sadly.

One can only hope that without a government some people will actually realize, we need one.

[Odin2005]

6. The Republicans here have gone psycho.

[kickysnana]

7. The only sticking point is tax increase for the upper 2% so the cuts will not be as deep.

Taxes were slashed under Ventura and Pawlenty. The rich have gotten richer. The GOP wants schools and hospitals closed, old people dying. They are always smiling and joking as they leave and bring to the table outrageous ideas as compromise the latest was borrowing against possible future tobacco settlement money, the money the Supreme Court keeps cutting. I kid you not.

The MN GOP are monsters.

[mzmolly]

9. Please see this poll.

http://www.twincities.com/index.html?_requestid=489769&_requestid=491660

Question - "On whom do you place the most blame for the state shutdown?"

The poll is on the right hand side of the page - see link above.