And so Minnesota’s government and a number of “non-critical” state services are shut down until further notice as of today.
Visitors won’t be able to go to the state parks or the zoo, and travelers will find the highway rest stops shuttered. Road construction projects will cease, as will licensing for teachers and businesses.
Many social service agencies will lose their funding, cutting state support for programs such as job training and homelessness prevention. Those that don’t have reserves will likely close their doors.
And up to 23,000 state workers are scheduled to be laid off, though they will continue to get health benefits and can return to their jobs when the budget impasse is resolved.
Basic health and safety services will continue, a judge ruled on Wednesday. The state must continue funding custodial care for residents in prisons, treatment centers and nursing homes. The state troopers will continue to patrol. The state universities will also remain open.
Dem Gov. Mark Dayton wants to close the state’s $3.6 billion shortfall with a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes on the wealthiest 2%. Republicans vowed that zero tax hikes will be acceptable and want to take out every bit of the shortfall on the working class, the elderly, and the poor after passing a $200 million tax cut on businesses. They then shut down the government in response. Sound familiar?
Now we go to the “Who will the voters blame?” stage of the negotiations. Meanwhile, thousands of state workers don’t know when they are going to go back to work again. Best irony? The state’s unemployment and job force workers are as of today out of a job to go to.
If they can’t get 100% of what they want, Republicans blow up the whole thing. As goes Minnesota, so goes the nation?
dpcap
I really hope that blows up in their face.
With sulfuric acid.
TreeBeard
You know, I’m glad I’m not American. I’m not saying either of the countries I belong to are perfect (one first world, one third world) but knowing that this kind of massive douchebaggery exists in my country that is supposedly literate, developed and powerful would have driven me insane.
We want to wish you Good Luck, America, but unlike the passengers on Airplane! we’re not counting on you.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
They’re Confederates. Same as it ever was.
“We want everything, and if we don’t get it we’ll tear the whole thing down.” Been just about 150 years since the last time they blew the place up; we’re just about due.
Omnes Omnibus
Christ, first Wisconsin and now Minnesota going nutso? These upper mid-west states are supposed to be bastions of good sense and good governance. Dull perhaps, but decent and well-meaning.
Lysana
So how deep blue will MN go in 2012, do you think? I’m tempted to look up Pantone codes to define the depth.
NamelessGenXer
@Lysana
#0000CC
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)
Well, now is when things will actually start happening. Dayton campaigned explicitly on taxing the rich, and the Republicans campaigned explicitly (of course) on not raising any taxes, ever, under any circumstances. I knew our government was headed for a shutdown as soon as the election results were in.
My money is on Dayton, so far polling suggests that the public is with him and he seems to be pretty resolute. After watching eight years of Tim Pawlenty essentially get everything he wanted despite the D’s control of the legislature it would seem that the Governor is really the more equal of the two branches.
I suspect that the GOP knows this too, but they have to go through a week or so of posturing before they can throw in the towel and blame the outcome on Dayton.
Jack
@Omnes Omnibus
That’s because the Republican party used to have regional variations to suit local mores. Now you won’t find any differences between a Georgia Republican and a Minnesota Republican, and if you do, one of them will either quickly pivot to adjust, or will quickly no longer be a Republican.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
$200 million tax cut for businesses duing a budget shortfall?
At some point this is beyond disbelief, beyond anger, beyond outrage, beyond despair, all the way to numbness so we don’t all drown in liquor.
Origuy
But raising taxes on the rich is class warfare, while cutting services for the poor and laying off middle-class workers is just good fiscal practice.
Odie Hugh Manatee
The Republicans are holding a gun to the head of the economy and are demanding their ransom. If they don’t get it then they are going to pull the trigger. I hope Dayton stands his ground and refuses to negotiate with these (economic) terrorists. One thing to remember is that these Repubs were voted in by the people of the state. Voting has consequences and I hope that the assholes who put these terrorists in power end up suffering for doing so.
The Repubs are betting that Dayton knuckles under and gives them what they want. If I were Dayton, I would give them the finger. They want to protect the wealthy and make everyone else pay for it.
Fuck them.
arguingwithsignposts
@Omnes
@Jack
Grover Fucking Norquist is what happened.
debit
I don’t know that the MN GOP realize how badly this is going to go for them. One of my biggest clients runs a PCA business that does over 2 million a year in payroll. He’s a Somali native that came here twenty years ago and is a pretty staunch republican (I know, I don’t get it either). As of today, his employees are out of a job and his clients are without care as Ucare is their biggest care provider.
He is LIVID. As am I. My company’s niche is servicing to Somali clients and most of them run PCA companies. It’s going to be tight and we might have trouble making payroll if the shut down continues more than a week.
Olivia
The Republican leaders of the Minnesota House and Senate sent a letter to state employees this week, on the state email system that enraged 99% of the state workers. They were trying to place the blame on Dayton and convince us that they are only looking out for our (state workers)best interests. The email turned the few workers who thought Dayton was to blame against the Republican led legislature. In the past, these teabagging Republicans have laughed at us, called us beasts and leeches, and promised to get rid of most of us. Almost all of us support Dayton and have told him so. I cannot WAIT until the 2012 elections
liberal
11. Odie Hugh Manatee
This was exactly the point of Krugman’s column today, but in reference to Obama and the Congressional Republicans.
Can we take odds on Obama caving?
Chris
Yeah, you noticed that. This country gets more ungovernable by the day. Hope your countries have a slightly more sane political scene.
Restrung
They did give up the $200M tax CUTS for richy-rich and thought they were being truly magnanimous. Mark Dayton (of Target) is really being quite cool, but he’s starting to bear (BARE woops) his teeth a little. Good for him.
My take is that the newly elected R’s just don’t know what the fuck they are doing, but think they’re supposed to be the tea baggiest baggers they can be.
BTW they are ALL up for re-election next year. Except Mark Dayton.
TreeBeard
@Chris (#15)
Well, one of them put the right wingers back in charge (the Tories) who’re hell bent on causing a double-dip. But even they pale in front of the thugs that call themselves ‘Republican’ (personally, I love the ‘Teahadists’ moniker) as the Tories have had the sense to make a few U-turns – NHS reforms, prison sentencing to name a couple.
The other country is India, where although it’s not exactly a shining beacon of awesomeness to the world, I’ve seen democracy work there a few times, and people know the power of their vote. But at least illiteracy, ignorance and poverty can be an excuse there – what reason does the US have to give us Palin, Bachmann, Boner and Grover Fucking Norquist?
Restrung
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)
Sister Tim cheated and was creamed in court, but we can still blame for this deficit. Fukr. Property taxes in the cities pretty much doubled and that affects business too. Especially the small kind. That fukr.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@liberal:
Depends on what your definition of “cave” is. IMO, spending cuts are on the table but so are tax loophole plugs and tax increases on the wealthy. For Obama to state otherwise (demand tax increases and nothing else) would make him no different than the Teahadists who hate him.
One bright point in Minnesota is that the state parks are closing right before the 4th. That is going to hit home for many people who had plans this weekend, giving them a hint of the immediacy of this. IMO, Dayton is in a better place than the Repubs are because he has the whole state to deal with in a re-election and the Repubs have their local districts to deal with. If the Repubs have misjudged this there is a possibility that their individual localities will tear into them for bringing this down.
It ought to be interesting to see how this all falls out but I don’t think the results of this situation can be mirrored to the national level because states are very unlike the small jurisdictions within them.
I hope Dayton stands his ground until he gets the tax increases that he is asking for. Once a majority of the public start hurting, if Dayton and the Democrats can drive the point home that the Repubs are prostrating themselves for the wealthy and allowing everyone else to suffer then it just might hurt them badly in the next election. Being that this is Minnesota, home of Bachmann Batshit Crazy Overdrive, there is still a chance that the Dems will get the blame.
Our country is full of stupid people. That’s why we are in the situation we are now.
WereBear
I keep hoping this will turn out like Newt & the government shutdown.
liberal
@20. Odie Hugh Manatee
Yes, but the spending cuts mentioned are in the trillions of dollars. Are we going to see tax loophole plugs on the same order of magnitude? No way. And as for actual tax increases, there’s no way the Rethuglicans will accept that.
To me, a “cave” is one in which the spending cuts outway the tax increases.
You’re missing a third possibility: that Obama demand the debt limit be raised with no strings attached whatsoever. That’s what he should have done in the first place.
liberal
Minnesota used to be pretty liberal. I assume some kind of demographic changes have made it far less so.
middlewest
I want to hope for the best, but our local media carried water for Pawlenty for years; I can see them trying to stab Dayton in the back.
Halteclere
I am reading a book on the rise of the Nazis in the ’20’s and ’30’s. (I’m not going to Godwin this thread by saying WE ARE JUST LIKE THE NAZIS!) When the great Great Depression hit Germany, the Reichstag government responded by eliminating many civil service positions and significantly cutting pensions. The result was that revenues dramatically fell, worsening the state of their economy.
There are many examples of the negative affects of when a country implements austerity measures during the middle of an economic crisis. Are there any – any at all – examples of a country implementing such austerity measures during an economic crisis that actually was beneficial? Any at all?
Does anyone have any examples where beneficial austerity measures during a crisis should not be grouped in with unicorns, mermaids, and pots of gold at the end of rainbows?
thatguy
Where can I find good analysis of the MN situation? The Star Tribune is utterly unreadable. Any good MN political blogs out there?
liberal
@19:
Actually, increasing property taxes is a good thing. In the long run, it just takes money out of the pockets of landowners, who as Mill understood centuries ago profit in their sleep for doing nothing. Shortrun is a bitch, of course, because it hits property values hard.
liberal
@25 wrote,
Krugman’s been very good on this. Seems like the elites don’t know the history, but (more importantly IMHO) also don’t care.
buckyblue
Putting these Republicans in office is like making me head of the church. You mean we don’t have enough money to open the church on Sunday because the offering plate take is down; and I have to go fishing instead. Wow, that really sucks (dripping sarcasm).
NorthernMNer
@thatguy– mnpublius.com is your best bet.
It isn’t just the budget. We are now learning that in return for paltry additional revenue, the MN GOP wanted abortion restrictions, Voter ID, and their gerrymandered redistricting in return during a special session.
Here’s the Scribd link to what their hostage-taking demands are: http://www.scribd.com/doc/59110623/20110630232030082
Olivia
@thatguy
http://www.bluestemprairie.com/
http://mnpublius.com/
http://www.dumpbachmann.com/
not blogs but good sites
http://www.minnpost.com/
http://minnesotaindependent.com/
CrowsSong
@middlewest The Star Tribune has been trying to do exactly that for months, and the polls still show a majority on Dayton’s side. That bodes well.
@thatguy MNPublius.com does a half-decent job at covering the state of affairs.
andy
Minn Post has some reporting up today:
We’re finally hearing a little about what the GOP “negotiators” were demanding in their meetings with the Governor:
Pigs and filth. It’s a grim irony indeed that the “Minnesota Miracle” was passed with Republican help almost forty years ago. But it was a different era with different Republicans- they are kicking away the last of the props that were helping support their own constituents. But I guess it’s Grover fucking Norquist they’re hearing in their ears…
lou
Try MinnPost, started by journalists frustrated by the corporate atmosphere of the Star Trib.
DBrown
liberal – you haven’t followed what Obama said and you need to before making very incorrect conclusions. Obama has offered a 1.4 trillion cut over tens years. At most 140 billion a year. Tax loop holes run in the many tens of billions and even ‘small’ tax changes (as in increases on corporations) can result in many more tens of billions. Adding SS changes (there, one of Obama’s fix to trim the deficit by dealing with entitlements) like raising the withholdings cap or getting rid of it will add many billions more to the income stream. A lot can and will be done that looks like âbigâ cuts that turn out to matter far less â look at the deal the thugs accepted to prevent a gov shutdown; they were really hood-winked.
...now I try to be amused
This really does look like a GOP trial balloon.
@27:
I live in my property and don’t rent it out, so all I will do in my sleep is accrue property taxes until I sell it. And so it is with a lot of people. Perhaps there should be higher taxes on the sale of real estate?
Felanius Kootea
The MN voters voted in a governor who campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthy and a legislature whose members campaigned on never, ever raising taxes and who made targeting gay marriage, making abortion essentially illegal, and promising to fire tens of thousands of “nonessential” state workers in the middle of a recession their most pressing legislative priorities. This outcome should not really be a surprise.
I feel the pain of the people who won’t be able to go to the parks July 4th, the doctors and nurses who were not able to get their state board licenses renewed, the couples who were not able to get their marriage licenses, the drivers whose licenses can’t be renewed, etc. But if this finally gets people to pay attention to the actions of politicians and not just their campaign rhetoric, I think it will work out for the best. And it helps people who have bought the Republican “we don’t need government” argument to understand what exactly government does on a day to day basis. The fact that so many have to be hurt for a few to understand what’s truly going on is sad.
Mnemosyne
He did. Boehner told him to get stuffed. That’s how we ended up in negotiations.
Do you even follow politics at all? This was in the news for at least two months, and yet you seem completely ignorant of it.
Southern Beale
Geeeez even California didn’t get this bad!
celticdragonchick
I really do think that the freshmen teatard radicals are going to try to go whole hog and blow the country up…GOP donors and corporate masters be damned. They bought into their own mythology.
boss bitch
Uhm, he did. Repubs said hell no and he also got objections from members of his own party (conservative democrats) who want to cut spending.
Felanius Kootea
@boss bitch
It is much easier to blame Obama than to ascertain the facts before going off on an anti-Obama rant. Or to acknowledge the fact that we have a center-right party holding the presidency and the Senate and a loony right party holding the House and a news media that’s afraid to contemplate the possibility that the loony right party is … loony.
PaulW
This needs to be a national story.
This needs to underscore how the obsession that Republicans have for Zero Tax Hikes is killing our governments the way they wanted to kill government – that whole drown it in a bathtub meme – for the last 30 years.
This needs to demonstrate that it’s the REPUBLICANS that are destroying this nation. And that for the Love of God we all need to stop voting Republican.
Ordovician Bighorn Dolomite (formerly rarely seen poster Fe E)
@felanius kootea 36
Word.
I just hope people actually learn the right lessons. Despite their ideology having no basis in fact the rigth wing has done a damn good job of selling it to a large slice of the masses. I still think Dayton will win and MN will return to sanity, but I am not as confident as I would like to be.
On a broader level Minnesota has a pretty large influx of new residents in te last fifteen years or so, and it seems that they moved here for our well known high quality of life and quickly worked to do everyhting they could to see that it was no longer funded. John Kline, I am looking at you.
goblue72
It got pretty bad here in California and Brown took his pound of flesh and then some. The UC system at this point forward is going to be preserve of the children of the well to do and not much else. But we’re a state run by Democrats, so of course we didnt go completely nuts. There IS a difference between the parties regardless of what the firebaggers say.
Gus
I would argue that in Minnesota, the real issue is the willingness of Evangelicals to become politicized in the ’80s. The abortion one issue voters of that era have also bought into the Norquist philosophy. Apparently Jesus was a big believer in tax cuts for the rich and limited government.
Amen.
Restrung
MN’s elected Republicans also gave us a no-box-turtle fucking and no-goat-marrying constitutional amendment to vote against. Because the Governor can’t veto that. Can’t do a budget cuz we’re too fucking stupid… but we’re uhh.. against librul stuff, so there.
Mnemosyne
It’s the libertarian way — move someplace that has a nice infrastructure in place that you can benefit from and then shit all over it so no one else will be able to use it after you’re done.
As I always, say, I would have a lot more respect for libertarians if they actually went out and tried to build their ideal society from scratch rather than trying to take over a state that has almost 400 years of infrastructure already in place and declaring that it will prove that they don’t need any government help. Fucking parasites.
(Edited date)
jimbob
@36 Do you have a street or road that connects your property to the rest of the world? Do you have sewers? Schools for your kids? Police and firemen? (Get the picture?)
Property taxes are good because they’re local and keep money in the local economy. (I learned that from Johnson or Stieglitz of Krugman somewhere.)
cckids
Odie Hugh Manatee @20:
This. The spouse read on Bloomberg that last night (Thurs), around 10:00, park rangers went around the state campgrounds, letting everyone know that the park would be closing down as of this morning. Many people, having arrived & set up after work, looking forward to a long weekend, were furious. It is my personal bet that the rangers were sure to let them all know just who is to blame for screwing their weekend.
Gravenstone
Dude, Obama and the Senate Dems long ago demanded a “clean” bill to simply raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans told them to pound sand and here we are on the precipice. Now, if you’re referring to the potential for Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment and simply dismiss the concept of a “debt ceiling” outright, that’s an entirely different matter.
bemused
@44,
MNGOP won the House by under one percentage point and Senate by just under the two percentage point. These are hardly “overwhelming” margin that the GOP is using as an excuse to trash our state to their satisfaction.
I am grateful every day that we have Mark Dayton instead of Emmer who was just as vague with specifics on the campaign trail as Walker and the other new Republican governors. Emmer just wrote an oped saying the MNGOP must not back down in budget talks and that if Minneapolis and St Paul had been excluded, he would have won the election by 6 percentage points. What an asshat.
I think this is all going to backfire on the GOP next election, at least I’m hoping people are finally rubbing the dirt out of their eyes.
...now I try to be amused
@49:
Oh yeah, I get the picture. I’m not the sort who whines about my taxes. I was just questioning the assertion that all landowners profit in their sleep for doing nothing.
Pococurante
I blame the voters who voted for these individuals.
Voters need to take responsibility for their choices.
@13 debit
So he was proud to be a Republican when his belief system affected other people. But now it affects him.
How sad.
Yutsano
As is always true with Republicans. To wit: Andrew Sullivan.
And wifey is gonna be cranky about this. Fortunately she’s still being distracted by a nice shiny Canuckistani object.
liberal
@51 Graventstone:
I never saw any sustained effort by Obama/Senate Dems in that regard.
liberal
38. Mnemosyne wrote,
You miss the point entirely, which is that Obama should have demanded a clean bill and added he would sign nothing else.
liberal
36 …now I try to be amused wrote,
I guess you know absolutely nothing about economics. You’re extracting exactly the same economic value from your house as if you were renting it.
Too easy to game.
liberal
@49. jimbob
Yeah, but someone against property taxes can just say “replace them with sales taxes/income taxes/…”
I don’t think that’s obviously good; it’s probably mixed.
Rather, the number one reason property taxes is good is that in valuable locations, a good chunk of the tax falls on land, and land can be taxed with 100% efficiency (since taxation doesn’t decrease its supply) and 100% equity (since the value of land is not created by the landowner).
opie jeanne
We are flying to Minneapolis after the 4th, part of a vacation planned months ago. The light rail site assures me that they will be running as usual despite the shutdown, but it looks like some of the things we had planned, including a visit to the zoo, may not be in the cards.
Baseball. Surely they can’t take that away from us, can they?
I’m sure there are Minnesotans who will do a great job of updating you on things in their fair state, but I will also tell you what we see next week if it’s interesting.
goblue72
@liberal – Actually, in a lot of localties, its the improvements that carry the larger portion of the assessment, not the land. Increasing property tax rates across the board then is not necessarily as efficient as you claim.
A progressive property tax reform I’ve seen proposed (and in a few localities, implemented) is to skew property taxes towards land and not improvements. Typically, your property taxes on a parcel are divided between the land and improvements on the land (i.e. the building). Each is assessed separately, but the same tax rate is applied to each. It has the effect of increasing one’s property taxes the more you improve the land.
The argument is that this disincentivizes the development of land and encourages land speculation, allowing land owners of vacant urban infill parcels or blighted buildings to just sit on their properties and wait until a windfall comes around. By dramatically increasing the tax rate on the land component, you can raise additional revenues in a politically feasible way (since it affects the pocketbook of mainly land speculators and not homeowners) while also encouraging the development of underutilized land parcels.
Linnaeus
Sounds like Henry George’s land value tax he proposed back in the 19th century; it’s good to see that the idea is still alive and even being implemented.
Chris
Quite.
They say a conservative’s a liberal who’s been mugged by reality. A liberal, it turns out, is a conservative who’s been mugged by his own party.
boss bitch
BAWA HA HA AHA AH! What a way to move the goal posts, man. You said Obama didn’t make that effort, it was point out to you that he did and now you say it wasn’t SUSTAINED! LOL!
I knew you would this.
BD of MN
mn public radio has quite a bit of good stuff up, check out the actual closing offers and counter-offers made last night…
gravie
My sister is one of those furloughed workers. She processed Minnesota Care applications and she is quite worried about her clients.
Luckily for her, she has always been a saver so she has a nest egg to see her through. Also luckily for her, she went to a seminar put on by her union when it was clear that the right-wing legislators were willing to hold the state workforce hostage to get more gravy for the rich. She followed their advice, which was to apply for unemployment THEN rather than waiting until today, because as someone pointed out, there’s now no one to process new unemployment claims.
She also reports that the loudest of the loudmouth agitators who forced the shutdown have changed their office phone numbers so they don’t have to be troubled by any of the little people (aka their constituents) who might want to complain about this state of affairs.
bemused
gravie,
I tried Zeller’s office and got through.
The MN GOP have no clue what they are doing or worse, they do.
Mnemosyne
You move the goalposts faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. “Well, okay, he did say it, but he shouldn’t have said anything else! I’m still right in my own head!”
Also, please explain in detail exactly how Obama saying he won’t sign it any other way gets House Republicans to pass the bill. Explain your exact strategy to get Boehner’s cooperation and how you assemble a majority of votes in the House of Representatives. “Bully pulpit” is not an acceptable answer.
agrippa
Nihilism.
Those people would wreck the country from spite
TruthOrScare
bemused @ 44:
This is mind-boggling. Gosh, if only the residents of the larget metropolitan area in this state could be somehow disappeared, I would have won! That’s some weapons-grade Real Murkka vs. Fake Murrka fantasizing.
So what would he propose the GOP do to win the next gubernatorial election? Nuke Minneapolis-St. Paul? That’d take care of that thar ‘problem’ right quick, no?
Such a tell into the vile, immoral thinking of these people. Had he won, even having lost Minneapolis-St. Paul, how much thought do you think he would have given to their concerns or interests as governor? Zip, zilch, nada. In fact, he would happily torpedo them — let them move to Texas for a minimum wage job if they don’t like how the screws are put to them. Can’t reward them for their treachery and the more of them he gets rid of before the next election, the easier he should have it at the ballot box. (In the tiny, twisted minds of these idiots.)
slightly_peeved
I’m not sure how Liberal’s plan is meant to have gone.
Obama: Pass a clean debt bill.
Republicans: No. ARGLEBARGLECTHULURL’YEH
(time passes, GOP doesn’t get any less evil)
Obama: No, really. Pass a clean debt bill.
Republians: Ok fine.
Huh? He can’t threaten them with the economy tanking, because those of them who are smart enough to know that could happen are evil enough to not care. He can’t threaten them with unpopularity, since they’re already in the middle of urinating on the third rail of US politics.
Roy G
What is sad and ironic is that the Red Minnesotans don’t realize or don’t care that the reason Minnesota has traditionally had such a high quality of life is generations of Democrat Farm Labor governance, which spent wisely and liberally on public works.
The Republicans are like wicked hillbillies who move into a nice house and turn it into a garbage house, eventually pulling the copper wiring out for scrap.
OzoneR
Well, when Obama excites the base, they will show up in throngs of people to pressure the Republicans
Or they’ll take to the blogs and complain about Gitmo or that he’s using “Republican framing” (Never mind Bernie Sanders is also)
OzoneR
That’s what WAS done in the first place.