Shutdown Hits Eagan

The state of Minnesota has officially shut down.

After weeks of intense negotiations, capped by closed-door sessions through Thursday’s waning minutes, Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican lawmakers failed to agree on an operating budget for the coming biennium.

“I deeply regret that after two days of intense negotiations we have failed to reach an agreement,” Dayton said during a 10:30 p.m. press conference in his office.

Dayton continued: “I offered a plan to raise the taxes of only those Minnesotans who make more than $1 million per year. That is less than 0.3% of the state population. Despite many hours of negotiations, the Republican caucus remains adamantly opposed to new taxes.”

'Life and death'

As a result of the govnernment shutdown, a safe house for women and children threatened by domestic violence will close in Hastings and will house people in Eagan, said Mary Ajax, president of Burnsville-based 360 Communities.

“It’s really unfortunate,” she said. “We’re talking life and death here.”

The state government shutdown means a loss of funding to the 360 Communities Lewis House, which is operated by 360 Communities. Ajax said 40 percent of its budget comes from the state. It gets $1.2 million in state funding each year for the Lewis House, she said.

Ajax said Eagan’s Lewis House typically sees 25 people per day, and Hastings gets 20 per day. She said Eagan’s house will need extra cots, and every room will become a bedroom.

“We hope and pray we get through this without anyone being seriously hurt,” she said, noting that people are often under more stress in the summer, which is its busiest time. “People get seriously hurt even when we have all the resources available.”

Local government
Most business in Eagan city departments will carry on as usual, although there may be some glitches.

Tom Garrison, communications director for the City of Eagan, said the shutdown prevents complete approval of liquor licenses. The city will continue processing them, but they won’t be complete until the state can sign off on them.

“That won’t happen during the time of the shutdown,” he said.

Local work on the Duckwood overpass can continue. Some work on the overpass is, however, done by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. “Our concern grows as the length of a shutdown would grow,” Garrison said.

Garrison also wanted to stress that local government operations will remain intact. This includes police, fire, city clerk’s office, voter registration, as well as city permits and inspections, among others listed in an update on the shutdown at the city’s website.

Local reaction

DFL Rep. Rick Hansen waited outside the capitol steps Thursday evening trying, he said, "to be as receptive as I can to constituents."

He said he was worrying about the consequences of a shutdown.

"What if we have a tornado?" he asked. "What if we have a flood. There's things we take for granted that public services provide."

While he would have preferred to prevent a government shutdown, he said that "if we adopted the budget the Republicans proposed, we would have had massive layoffs permanently."

"Considering how the Republican majority's positions are, I don't think we could have ended up any differently without individual legislators saying they want to avoid the shutdown."

Local Republican legislators Sen. Ted Daley and Rep. Doug Wardlow could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Sue Skog of Eagan, a pharmacy technician at the University Hospital, went to the state capitol Thursday evening with the hope that Republicans would compromise to avert a shutdown.

"Gov. Dayton already compromised a lot," she said, "and the Republicans need to get over themselves and compromise just as much."

But she said a shutdown would be preferable to permanent cuts in state services.

"The no new taxes thing is getting really old."

Keep up with the latest stories on the shutdown:

July 1:

June 30: SHUTDOWN UPDATE: Public Transit in Eagan Will Continue

June 26:

June 16:

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