Minnesota Budget: State Sends Layoff Notices To 36,000 Workers Ahead Of Possible Shutdown

MINNEAPOLIS -- In preparation for a potential shutdown of state government, Minnesota sent layoff notices on Friday to more than 36,000 state workers, according to the governor's office.

With Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature unable to agree on a spending plan, the state could face closing down services on July 1, the start of the fiscal 2012-13 biennium.

Dayton called the notices "a grim reminder of a deadline that is just 20 days away."

"I continue to hope that the Legislature will join me in compromising, in finding a balanced solution to our budget, and in standing up for Minnesotans," the governor said in a statement.

On May 24, Dayton vetoed budget bills passed by the Legislature, which rejected his $37.1 billion, two-year budget and its income-tax hike on wealthy residents to help erase a $5 billion deficit. Republicans instead opted for spending cuts even after Dayton offered to cut down his tax proposal.

On Monday, Republican leaders agreed to match the governor's spending levels for education, public safety and the judiciary.

The governor and leaders continued to negotiate on the budget in the hope of avoiding a shutdown, according to Katharine Tinucci, Dayton's spokeswoman. She added that a state judge will ultimately decide which jobs are critical and should continue during a government shutdown.

The last time that a budget impasse closed portions of Minnesota government was a nine-day shutdown in 2005.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago and David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Jan Paschal )

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[headach]

09:39 AM on 06/15/2011

Can somebody explain!! what i think is more code words from the repubs.When they keep saying take OUR COUNTRY BACK what are they talking about,take it back from who??who has the country china? russia?or the german's maybe alien's?or are they saying take our country back from the hands of a N~~~shut my mouth,in 50 yrs i've never heard that phrase used in political talk and i've heard alot of code words over the years but this is really very sad!!

[Roadrun]

08:43 AM on 06/13/2011

To be fair, the republicans ran on a platform of JOBS and they are being true to that plan - if they get the required power we ALL need one.

[JoeDGoy]

07:18 AM on 06/13/2011

36k Swedes laid off?

[liberallibrarian]

04:13 PM on 06/13/2011

You have absolutely no clue what constitutes "government employee", do you? Go away and come back when you can have an adult conversation.

[bluecollaramerican]

07:10 AM on 06/13/2011

All is not well in the fantasyland of Pawlenty and Bachmann

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

04:49 AM on 06/13/2011

Learn who's really in charge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI&feature=mh_lolz&list=WL40442CD8FFF5BDEC

[MissingAmerica]

12:51 AM on 06/13/2011

The Republicans have accused the Dems of being able to accomplish nothing, yet the GOP are accomplishing so much that is not in the best interest of this country. If it's a pre-election game, it's a dirty one. We had elections in 2010, and the next one is almost 1-1/2 years away. It seems it would be a really great idea to start trying to do something constructive! If they keep going the way they are, there will be no country left to lead. We are going down for the third time, and I don't mean that in a masculinely lewd way. I mean that in a "let's toss these guys overboard before they sink the Ship of State and take us down with them!

[liberallibrarian]

04:14 PM on 06/13/2011

It blows my mind that they actually think this is a GOOD political strategy.

[henrypapillon]

12:36 AM on 06/13/2011

Of course, if they get laid off, they can always get state unemployment checks, right?

[liberallibrarian]

04:15 PM on 06/13/2011

Uh...no. We're not even sure if we'll have health insurance.

[zelda777]

11:05 PM on 06/12/2011

Republican economic theory: Create jobs by laying people off.

[henrypapillon]

12:37 AM on 06/13/2011

The program is a new Tea Party plan called Poverty Causes Prosperity (PCP).

[liberallibrarian]

04:16 PM on 06/13/2011

And you have to be ON PCP to understand how that could possibly work.

[headach]

08:45 AM on 06/15/2011

That's because there's a strange kinda mental-illness in the heads of repubs,we've been trinkling down for 24 years now,8 of Reagans trinkles 16 of dad and son Bush trinkles.And yet Obama is the demon i think he was 26 yrs old when this madness started.Even when Cinton cleaned up dads mess and left son a nice BIG juicy surplus he seen fit to funnel it to the filthy rich and WMD'S WMD'S Saddam's gonna kill us war,6 thousand young soldier's dead 30 thousand without a arm or leg.How soon we forget 2012 they want to bring more hell

[talkmedown]

11:00 PM on 06/12/2011

This is a shot across the bow for Wisconsin ... Repub dirty tricks

[El Indio]

09:10 PM on 06/12/2011

Why is it that under Republican government (and yes I know they have a Dem gov, but legislatures make laws) the wealthy never, ever suffer in hard times? Another example of how trickle down is working for ya conservs....

[talkmedown]

11:00 PM on 06/12/2011

they know who butters their weeny

[IamfromTexas]

02:48 AM on 06/13/2011

And why is it that the Dems first option is to tax the wealthy and only the wealthy. Nearly half the American public does not pay income tax. But we want to raise the tax on those that do pay? huh? Really?

The POTUS wants to tax only the wealthy. The state of Minnesota wants to tax only the wealthy. Sorry. How about we tax everyone something? We should ALL shoulder the burden not just some of us.

[Larry Lambert]

06:33 AM on 06/13/2011

Because they are the ones that are NOT paying the taxes, the middle and working class cannot pay anymore we have no money left

[Roadrun]

08:47 AM on 06/13/2011

But when the Cons put everyone out of a job except for the rich and you want the poor the only ones taxed you are giving yourself away in one fell swoop. You don't believe in keeping any of your cards close to your chest do you?

[NoahVail]

08:57 PM on 06/12/2011

What's with all the fringers advocating for a Mogudishu-style government in Minnesota? Is there something in that tea besides tea?

[liberallibrarian]

04:17 PM on 06/13/2011

Whatever it is, I think they're mainlining it.

[NoahVail]

06:41 PM on 06/13/2011

Agreed.  (But you're not the only one...)

[AndyWright68]

07:31 PM on 06/12/2011

Statism is finally coming to an end. You cannot steal people's hard earned money with threats of violence and give it to other people and expect things to get better. All government employees should be fired. ALL OF THEM. Anyone who is paid from money that has to be extracted with threats of violence. Taxation IS theft. It does not matter how the money is used. IT IS THEFT! Put down the guns!

[oceana6695]

07:56 PM on 06/12/2011

Oh please...Violence? Taxation is legal...look it up in the constitution you claim you love so much.

[AndyWright68]

08:48 PM on 06/12/2011

The Constitution is just a piece of paper. Great idea but it failed miserable. EviI men will never allow words written down to stop them.

Legal? So what? Just because a bunch of wealthy, power craving men decided they have the right to steal does not make it right. What if a bunch of my friends wrote down that we have the right to steal your hard earned money and wrote it down? Guess you would just hand it over.

[NoahVail]

08:28 PM on 06/12/2011

Do you drive on the left side of the road there, free-wheeler?  You sound like you might be a bit violent.

[doglove]

08:37 PM on 06/12/2011

He wouldn't know-can't tell. Without those "guvmint" workers there would be no line in the middle of the road nor a fog line on either side. "Murica is only for those who live by the free market and those millions of jobholders empowered by the Bush tax cuts"
(wherever they are)

[AndyWright68]

09:04 PM on 06/12/2011

I believe in the nonaggression principal. It is the government that is violent. Every law is a gun and every tax is theft. Just because someone speaks out against the violence of the government does not make them violent. We are the good guys. We do not use violence, coercion, theft, extortion, lies, manipulation and threats, but that is all your government does. Government is violence. It is violence against peaceful people.here and around the world. You will never create virtue out of theft and violence.

[iridium53]

05:34 PM on 06/12/2011

36,000 people who won't be creating demand by spending.

Wisconsin politicians seem to believe in magic.
They send Ryan to Congress to cut taxes on the rich and raise problems for the poor.

Boycott Wisconsin.
Boycott Wisconsin products.

Perhaps Wisconsin companies will stop supporting magical thinking.

[NoahVail]

08:29 PM on 06/12/2011

Baby Jebus gonna' take care ob dem.  Dey love da baby Jebus and he love dem.

[Dave TN]

12:46 AM on 06/13/2011

No cutt'in the cheese, at least my HDL will go down.

[mnnyer]

02:57 PM on 06/12/2011

Governor Dayton is trying to do the correct thing for Minnesota.
He is dealing with blockheads.
I wish him strength and patience.

[NoahVail]

08:33 PM on 06/12/2011

Dayton released a statement saying the layoff notices serve as a grim reminder of the reality that a shutdown embodies. He urged lawmakers to compromise and find a solution.

Read more: AFSCME Urges Minn. GOP Lawmakers to Compromise, Avoid Shutdown http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/politics/afscme-urges-minn-gop-lawmakers-to-compromise-avoid-shutdown-jun-12-2011#ixzz1P6yvCUBw

[Roadrun]

08:52 AM on 06/13/2011

Really? I'd wish him sanity but I am a realist.

[Dan Kreutzer]

12:34 PM on 06/12/2011

Republicans 2010: Its jobs, jobs, jobs.
Republicans 2011: Jobs? Fire everybody! Cut unemployment benefits!

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

04:51 AM on 06/13/2011

Someone has that job of firing them....!
See this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI&feature=mh_lolz&list=WL40442CD8FFF5BDEC