The potential "Shutdown" of Minnesota state government - brought about by DFL grandstanding on the budget - might be two weeks away.
I'll analyze DeFiebre's analysis.
If you've "gotta go" when you're on the go on state highways ... Try crossing your legs until you get home.
The state's 88 roadside rest stops would be closed.[Or, perhaps, stop at a town and go at the gas station? Or use a tree? Are Minnesotans this helpless? ]
If you're planning a camping vacation at the Mississippi headwaters ... Start looking up the nearest KOA. Itasca State Park and the rest of the parks, campsites and picnic grounds in the state system would be shut down.[So looking for the KOA is a bad thing? ]
If you're waiting for results of tests that measure your school's performance against federal standards ... You might wait awhile longer. That bureaucratic chore could get Left Behind by a greatly reduced staff at the Department of Education. [Let this cutback be made permanent. Our school system has become obsessed on teaching to the tests. Dumping this obsession would add more time for learning (which would, given our school system's political priorities, probably would be used for more PC time-wasteage anyway) ]
If all this stress is getting to you and your HMO denies your mental health treatment ... You wouldn't get your complaint heard by state regulators. [And since the state regulators are mostly former HMO employees, all it really means is that your denial will take longer to get. ]
If you're a farmer in need of a low-interest loan from the Rural Finance Authority ... Maybe the Money Store is your best bet. State ag loans would be suspended. [Which means you'd have to rely on any of a number of federal programs. Right? ]
If you want to idle some of your farmland under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) ... You might want to plant crops after all. The Board of Water and Soil Resources would be closed, suspending processing of CREP applications and landowner payments. [Uh oh. Farmers farming. What'll they sink to next? The neocon foot is truly on the throat of the people.]
If you're a consumer with a business complaint ... Look for help somewhere other than the Department of Commerce. Its consumer protection services would be interrupted, although the attorney general's will continue. [Mike Hatch is everywhere, and eternal. ]
If you're ready to get your first Minnesota driver's license ... Better act fast. Driver testing and issuance of new licenses would be interrupted July 1, but renewals will still be processed. [Fewer young drivers on the road? My insurance rates will drop! ]
If you're planning a career in real estate ... Don't quit your day job yet. New license applications for real estate agents and brokers, insurance agents and others wouldn't be processed by Commerce, but renewals will be. [ It'll slow down the bubble. Good news for everyone.]
If you're a vendor who sells fishing licenses and you have trouble with the computer system ... You would need to send your customers somewhere else. The DNR's troubleshooters for licensing would not be at work. [The world will grind to a halt. ]
If you're a dislocated worker in search of new employment ... Don't count on help from the state. Job services would be shut down. [Have they actually found anyone a job? Ever? I mean, in the past 20 years I've used their "services" three times. Much bureaucracy, no friggin' jobs anywhere near my area. Worthless. Your mileage may vary. ]
If you're blind or injured and in need of vocational rehabilitation ... Same story. Those services aren't considered essential. [Y'know, why the court didn't consider this "health-related" baffles me. ]
If you need health insurance from the state plan for the working poor ... Get your application in now. New filings for MinnesotaCare wouldn't be processed after June 30, but county offices will still sign people up for Medical Assistance and General Assistance Medical Care. [In other words, not much changes. And what on earth is wrong with putting a deadline on things, anyway? ]
If you're choking on toxic emissions from the factory next door ... Try holding your breath. The Pollution Control Agency would delay responding to complaints and wouldn't be issuing air and water quality permits. [ So in other words, the years-long process of dealing with complaints will become years and weeks-long. ]
If you're carless in Carlos ... Stock up on shoe leather. Rural transit systems wouldn't be reimbursed by the state, possibly affecting service. [So you share rides or...Carlos? You live in Carlos and the job is outside walking distance? You need to get into shape, pal. ]
If you're stuck in traffic on a Twin Cities freeway ... You would have to guess how long it will take to reach your exit. Message boards and traffic information would be suspended. [But since that information is always posted at a point where you've already committed to a route, it really doesn't change much. As long as KBEM is running, you're OK anyway. ]
If you've just finished your training ... You wouldn't be able to get licensed as an audiologist, alcohol and drug counselor, food manager or occupational therapist, but existing licenses will be renewed. [Get cracking, all you audiologists, counselors and managers. ]
If you have a beef with a state trooper ... Don't expect swift justice. Internal investigations would be delayed, although state highways will be fully patrolled. [Riiiiight. Because your complaints against state troopers are taken so seriously today. ]
If you're appealing a worker's comp case ... See above. The Workers Compensation Court of Appeals would shut down. [See above. An endless bureaucratic nightmare is extended a couple of weeks. ]
If you're a minimum wage worker ... Hope the shutdown doesn't last beyond your scheduled raise Aug. 1. There would be no one in government to enforce the increase or, for that matter, overtime and prevailing wage laws. [And in the world of the Strib, we know what that means; Employers will jump on a bonanza of cheap forced labor! Because they know the enforcement will never return, and that no minumum wage worker (whoever they are) will ever document what happened. Right? ]
Some things won't change, shutdown or not. In general, courts have ruled that operations affecting public health, welfare and safety should continue, even without legislative authorization.
A June 23 hearing in Ramsey County District Court is set to consider Pawlenty administration petitions to keep on about 8,500 state employees performing functions deemed critical.
If you have children in summer school... You probably needn't worry. Most summer school programs wouldn't be affected by a partial state government shutdown. There could be an impact on some districts, though, if a shutdown slows or stops federal funds. [Thankew! Thankew! ]
If you're dodging orange barrels in a road construction zone ... You would probably still be doing that. The Pawlenty administration will ask the court to designate most highway projects as essential services. [But will the court go along? ]
If you receive welfare, food stamps or child support ... Don't fear. Those services aren't supposed to change. [So the gloom and doom above about social services is overstated? ]
If you're hoping for free passes at freeway ramp meters and toll lanes ... Sorry. Those pieces of traffic-regulating technology would keep running. [DAMN YOU LEGISLATORS! ]
If you're a public school teacher enjoying the three best things about the job (June, July and August) ... Summer paychecks should still show up if you're not on the layoff list. Most local school funding would keep flowing under so-called standing appropriations. [Since if you're getting paid it's because you've opted to spread your nine checks over 12 months (or you teach summer school), that'd seem to be only fair. ]
If the potato salad served at your annual family reunion summer picnic goes bad and becomes the source of a salmonella outbreak among your far-flung relatives ... The state's disease detectives would respond but perhaps not as quickly. [Does the State public health department take jurisdiction over your family's homemade potato salad? Now I'm nervous. ]
If you have a concern about Grandma's care ... Help should be on the way. Health and safety inspections of nursing homes and hospitals and background checks of workers in state-licensed facilities would continue. [Which is good, although I look forward to an era of vigilante inspections by the time I'm in my nineties. ]
And, finally:
If you're Gov. Tim Pawlenty or a state legislator ... No worries, mates, about your next paychecks. You took care of yourselves by enacting the state government finance bill during the regular session. [That's got an almost zen koan-like ring to it: "if your legislature cuts funding and puts itself out of work, can it ever undo its cuts?" We may be onto something here. ]
The shutdown, brought to you by a grandstanding DFLer near you. They value their precious taxes more than they value your bladder, your fishing license, or your access to justice!
easy for you gop wingnuts to laugh about this. i work for the state and i'm going to be out of work. i have bills to pay.
this shutdown is aimed at the women and children of minnesota, engineered by rich men to show the power they have. tim pawlenty is lookkng out for his friend, and ignoring everyone who's not in his inner circle.
its a symptom of the hate the right feels for the people that they let this happen.
Posted by: melanie at June 19, 2005 12:49 PMYes, Melanie, the right hates other people. Which is why the Republican party is still viable...
I do feel bad for those who could be laid off. I see both parties as responsible for this. We've had lots of trouble in recent years because the partisans on both sides simply refuse to do their jobs. Until things change, my policy will be to always vote for a challenger and not an incumbent, regardless of party affiliation.
Posted by: Nick at June 19, 2005 02:12 PM"....aimed at the women and children of this state"...yeah, that's right. There was "a plan" and it was to "get" the women and children of Minnesota-hooray-what fun for the "wingnuts"! Typical government-employee liberal fool. Has it ever occured to you, Melanie, that it takes two sides for things like this to happen?
Posted by: Colleen at June 19, 2005 06:11 PMI teach citizenship to Boy Scouts, and I alway subscribe to the legislatures newletters. Interestingly the Senate stopped publishing one a few years ago??
Posted by: shawn randall at June 19, 2005 09:24 PMAnyway I still get the one from the house. Much of it is unreadable, unless your a serious politics and policy wonk, since the parts that aren't puffery are about which committees are meeting when and where. But when you check on line you find the things have changed.
Still I find one thing interesting and that is from the time the session starts to the time it closes there is an unending flood of bill introductions, many of these get wrapped into huge omnibus bills, what was that about bills being substancially the same??
When you look at this you begin to see the problem. To many people with to many pet projects, not paying attention to the big picture until it's cruch time. I mean last year the House had over 2500 bills introduced. This is absurd.
I have a proposal. We amend the State Constitution so that in budget years no bills may be introduced or any non-budgetary committee meet until after a budget has been completed. Then they can argue over the division of the pie.
I would add this extra twist just to make sure that all sides don't goof off. If the budget is not finished in time the state doesn't shut down but is allotted 85% of LY budget. If in three months there is still no budget it drops to 75%. This includes ALL salarys including the Legislture and Administrators. And the legislature may not leave the capitol grounds and gets no per deium until the budget is finished. If it takes longer then the standard session.
It needs some fine tuning I know. But I think it would be a start.
In California we have not had a budget on-time in about 20 years. There have been threats of shut downs, lay-offs, etc. Ultimately, no matter how late the budget was, the employees (like me) always got paid on time. The worst year was the "IOU" year about eight or more years ago. The banks and credit unions all honored them. The people that did suffer were the contractors providing services. They could not get paid without a budget.
Posted by: JamesPh. at June 19, 2005 09:44 PM>>"its a symptom of the hate the right feels for the people that they let this happen."<<
It's a symptom of the hate the left feels for anyone who might have, for any reason, one more dollar than they have.
So, we're "killing Minnesota." We're starving the poor, killing the elderly, cheating the kids, and (of course) mistreating women. Right?
Seems to me that if all of the people who feel this way were to kick in fifty bucks every year, no one would starve (they're not really starving now, but we'll play along for a bit), no one would die, no kid would be cheated, and no one would be mistreated.
But, does this happen? Nope.
So, the logical conclusion must be that the doom-criers don't really care about the starving, the dying, the cheated, or the mistreated. What they really care about isn't the need for that money, but that they be able to exercise power to take that money away from people they don't like. Because, they could easily stop all the "suffering" in a minute if that was really their concern.
It's more important to these people to take the money away from the hated "rich" than it is to help the people for whom they claim the money is needed.
It's not anyone's need that they truly serve - it's their conviction that they should be the ones to run things, and dispose of things, and prioritize things.
It's not that we don't want to spend money to fix things that need, and deserve, fixing. Problem is, there's a very well-developed class of people that manages to insinuate itself into every such effort. And they're really, really bad at it. We'd rather do it privately, and competently, and to the level that WE think is needed, not to the level those people have decided is right.
Posted by: bobby b at June 20, 2005 01:21 AMMelanie speaks like the typical government worker:
She feels she has a GOD GIVEN RIGHT to a job on the taxpayer dole, with all the attendant benefits which for most government employees are FAR greater than those of us in the private sector.
Melanie, you have no right to any job any more than I do. If you're so worried about it, quit and get a job in the private sector like the rest of us. But then again, you wouldn't have the creamy benefits of government work, and in all likeliness, it would be hard for you because you'd be forced to actually WORK to earn a paycheck.
Screw you.
Posted by: FJBill at June 20, 2005 09:41 AM