The Minnesota state government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. CDT Friday July 1,2011, after talks between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and top Republicans fell apart. (Carlos Gonzalez - AP) After six months of disagreement and seven days of intense negotiations, the Minnesota state government shut down at midnight last night.
Gov. Mark Dayton (D) and the Republican-controlled legislature have been in a standoff since the beginning of the legislative session over how to close a projected $5 billion budget deficit.
In an echo of the national budget fight, Dayton wanted to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans. Republicans wanted to close the gap with spending cuts and accounting shifts.
“I cannot accept a Minnesota where people with disabilities lose part of the time they are cared for by personal care attendants so that millionaires don’t have to pay $1 more in taxes,” Dayton said at about 10 P.M. last night, when it became clear that a deal would not be reached.
It’s the second shutdown in six years in the state. The last one came in 2005, under former governor Tim Pawlenty — now a Republican presidential candidate. That shutdown lasted eight days, and about 9,000 workers were temporarily laid off.
A judge ruled earlier this week that only core government functions will continue while the government is shuttered, which means public safety, welfare programs, care for residents in state facilities (including prisons), preservation of the government financial system and necessary administration functions (for example, payments and computer system maintenance).
That means state parks will close for the holiday weekend, the busiest of the year. The Department of Natural Resources has estimated tourism losses of $12 million for each week the government is closed. About twenty thousands state workers are officially laid off; they are eligible for unemployment insurance.
For days, the negotiations between Dayton and Republicans in the state legislature have been difficult to follow because both sides agreed to a “cone of silence.” Since the talks broke down, that cone has disappeared.
Republicans offered a deal that included layoffs for some state workers and teachers along with some unrelated measures they have been unable to pass, including a voter ID law and abortion restrictions. The GOP also proposed delaying $700 million in payment to public schools, who are already owed about $1 billion by the state.
In recent days negotiatiors came close to an agreement, with Democrats proposing $3.58 billion in spending over the next two years and Republicans asking for $3.4 billion. But the budget for health and human services, which constitutes about a third of state spending, was a final sticking point.
Republicans called on Dayton to convene a special session so that a stopgap measure could be passed and a shutdown avoided. Dayton refused.
Both houses of the state legislature turned Republican last fall for the first time in 38 years, reversing the roles in a state that for past eight years had Pawlenty battling a Democratic-held legislature.
“The equivalence is this: both in ‘05 and now, you had Democrats demanding that we raise taxes and raise spending,” Pawlenty told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on a trip home Thursday.
Pawlenty also denied any resonsibility for the $5 billion deficit, for which he has repeatedly blamed Democrats in the legislature. But this shutdown could lead to renewed focus on Pawlenty’s fiscal record.
Gov. Mark Dayton’s WhoRunsGov profile
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Minnesota government goes into shutdown in partisan dispute
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