Minn. awakes to shutdown; Parties point fingers

ST. PAUL, Minn. - With Minnesota's state government closed for business, the focus shifted Friday to who's to blame.

The shutdown started at 12:01 a.m. Friday, the product of an ongoing dispute over taxes and spending between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative majorities. Talks fell apart well before the deadline, leaving state parks closed on the brink of the Fourth of July weekend, putting road projects at a standstill and forcing thousands of state worker layoffs.

Minnesota gov't shuts down amid deficit fight

The heads of the state's Republican and Democratic parties each say the other side is responsible.

Minnesota GOP Chairman Tony Sutton called Dayton a "piece of work" and accused him of inflicting "maximum pain" for political reasons.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin laid the blame on Republicans, saying they drove the state to a shutdown to protect millionaires from tax increases sought by Dayton.

"Shame on you for putting the interests of your rich campaign donors ahead of the well-being of the constituents you are supposed to represent," Martin said.

The Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a left-leaning group supportive of Dayton, plans to run weekend radio ads in three popular vacation areas blaming Republicans for the impact of the shutdown, including closed state parks. The group also debuted a "shutdown shame" website.

Though nearly all states are having severe budget problems this year, Minnesota stands as the only government to have shut down, thanks to Dayton's determination to raise taxes on high-earners to close a $5 billion deficit and the Republican Legislature's refusal to go along. The shutdown would be Minnesota's second in six years as the partisan divide deepens.

Here, as in 21 other states, there's no way to keep government operating past the end of a budget period without legislative action, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Even so, only four other states — Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have had shutdowns in the past decade, some lasting mere hours.

There was no word early Friday of any plan to continue budget negotiations.

Even before the final failure, officials padlocked highway rest areas and state parks, herding campers out. The full impact will hit Friday morning as thousands of laid-off state employees stay home until further notice and a wide array of services are suspended.

Critical functions such as state troopers, prison guards, the courts and disaster responses will continue. On Friday morning, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz will begin the court-appointed job of sifting through appeals from groups arguing in favor of continued government funding for particular programs.

Dayton addressed the looming shutdown at about 10 p.m. Thursday, emerging after a day of fitful negotiations with legislative Republicans to say the two sides were still fundamentally divided over how much the state should spend the next two years and that the shutdown was inevitable.

"This is a night of deep sorrow for me," Dayton said.

Republican lawmakers had gathered at the Capitol for hours, demanding that Dayton do what he had said for months he would not do: Call a special session so they could pass a "lights on" budget bill to keep the government running. The governor insisted he would not give up that leverage without a total budget solution that incorporated the many facets of state spending. The governor has sole power to call a special session, but once one starts, it's lawmakers who will decide when to adjourn.

"I think the governor's insistence that we pass a full budget is not going to be of much comfort to Minnesotans who are going to see delays on the highways because construction projects stop," said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo. "It's not going to comfort people who can't use our state parks, or who can't get a driver's license."

Officials in state parks had already started herding out campers Thursday, saying it would have been too difficult in the dead of night. Also Thursday, people rushed to get driver's and fishing licenses at offices and service centers that would be locked up by morning.

A stoppage in Minnesota also halts non-emergency road construction, shuts the state zoo and Capitol, and stops child-care assistance for the poor. More than 40 state boards and agencies expected to go dark.

The shutdown in retrospect was something of a slow-motion disaster, with a new Democratic governor and new Republican legislative majorities at odds for months over how to eliminate a $5 billion state budget deficit. Dayton has been determined to raise taxes on high-earners to close the deficit, while Republicans insisted that it be closed only by cuts to state spending.

Even after the shutdown looked like a certainty, Dayton and Republicans did not soften their conflicting principles. Dayton said he campaigned and was elected on a promise not to make spending cuts to a level he called "draconian." He said he has been more flexible than Republicans in trying to compromise in order to acknowledge their principles.

"I've gone halfway, and I'm not going to go further," Dayton said.

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[Danize]

The comment on opening a casino as a revenue raiser almost slipped in under the radar here. State governments take over the role of Bugsy Segal these days and hardly a brow is raised. These casinos are shake down traps for those least able to afford them. They inevitably attract prostitution, drug interests, and other criminal activites which may at times involve the state itself.

What does this silence say about the overall morality of our times? It says that we are essentially living in a plutocracy. Money has become an idol displacing both religion and sound civil government. Only when this perverse social inversion is corrected - putting human values about an economic machine's - will America regain something of it's true heritage.

[label1877]

Congratulations to the good people of Minnesota for electing such a wise legislature. Gov. Dayton is like all Democrats...their answer to everything is to raise taxes on the producers and delay the pain for somebody else to deal with down the road.

[carolo43]

Pawlenty said he balanced the budget. What he did was rob from all the other state programs to do so when it fact he put the state in a 6 Billion debt AFTER accepting Billions of stimulus money. Because he paid bills late, they lost their bond rating so now interest rates are higher. This lead to higher taxes. Again, a debt caused by Republican control that the Dems are trying to dig out of and can not.

[vielmann]

There is only one party to be blamed for it and it was the party that was screaming to shut down the government with that hagg named Bachmann leading the shouts. End of story. I think it is quite obvious that the GOP serves the wealthy and only the wealthy.

[Dgunner]

Sooner or later the rich will get porer as the poor get poorer. One can't show profit or any gain without profit from one to another. The politicos will soon come to undersatand that when the people stop listening to the government ? The shame of stealing to survive will become shameless and the common wealth will rise and create another form of havoc to be contended with. Time will put people on thier porchs to gaurd thier family and crops if there are any crops to gaurd. The little children will go to the fields instead of the class room and America will start over again from scratch. Hopefully not in my life time.

[godsgrace2000]

Shane on you. What if the individual has done everything possible to not have another kid and surprise? No birth control is 100% effective. Most of the poor would love to be self sufficient but there are no jobs available- the unemployment is very high.What are the poor supposed to do with their kids - leave them in the car? You talk as if it is a hand out when in reality for many it is a hand up. the tax payers as sugar daddies- PLEASE how ignorant can you be? one penny of every tax dollar goes to social services out of that the recipient gets much less because most of that penny pays for the papers and workers. You must think everyone on welfare or government assistance is living like kings; watch undercover millionaire for a reality check. It is sickening to read or hear some ignorant fool shoot his or her mouth off and act like the individual is personally signing the check for food stamps and other benefits.
This shut down affects much more than social services. You can't buy a lotto ticket or scratch off, fishing license, renew driving license or get one, no DNR,and much more. Both parties need to be held accountable and start compromising. Any other job in the state if you pulled this kind of tantrum and were incompetent at your job - you would be fired! Government shutdown is incompetence! Shame on those republicans heckling the governor- this is not a sports game- get with the program and do your job your being paid to do.

[cbsnacilbuper]

What if the individual has done everything possible to not have another kid and surprise? No birth control is 100% effective

How Effective Is Abstinence?

Used continuously, abstinence is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy. It also prevents STDs.

Now, if you want to keep rewarding bad behaviour then you end up with what we have today.

[noloyalisti]

I think everyone knows all of this is the fault of Republicons. They bankrupted America so that the could say we have no money to fund the government. They ALL did not want to stop the tax cuts for the rich that delete jobs. They even all voted to continue the corporate welfare to the rich, greedy oil corporations that are destroying the earth's climate as we speak.

[cbsnacilbuper]

Community Reinvestment Act

[pasha128]

The legislature did not even pass a budget for the governor to veto. Clearly Minnesota's Republican legislators feel their vacation is more important than finishing their constitutionally assigned task of PASSING A BUDGET.

[retm-w]

Guess Minn. will get adouble whammy in August when the U.S. Government shut's down.

[listen1st]

Amen!

[rightbehind]

Too Funny!! The party that feeds on grief, desperation, and fear was reward the last election and now state parks are being shut down. It's time to get rid of the republican party they'll turn those parks into the yards of the wealthy. The republicans are robbing the resources of entire country. The ignorant voters will more than likely once again reward them for it. It's not a sin to be poor but it is a sin to be ignorant.

[noloyalisti]

We need to work at cutting spending, especially on the military and corporate welfare. Meanwhile we have to fund WHAT WE HAVE ALREADY CONTRACTED TO DO. This is where the right wingers are as stupid and foolish as their name implies.