Politics & Government

Minnesota State Government Shutdown Sends Ripples Through Stillwater

The Stillwater Lift Bridge will remain open, but the Boom site, schools, county and nonprofits will feel the impact.

The Minnesota Government has 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.

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

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As the clock struck 12:01am Friday, the shutdown sent ripples through Stillwater.

Chet Jorgenson, a Stillwater area analyst for the state's commerce department, came to the capitol steps vigil after being laid off from his job, where he protected investors from stock and bond scams.

"Now even legitimate businesses are going to have to wait to get licensed and folks who are ripping people off are not going to get caught as fast," Jorgenson said. "For people who are defrauding consumers, there's no 'cops on the beat.'"

For his own part, Jorgenson said "We're worried about paying the bills if this goes very long."

"We've cut back spending dramatically," he continued. "We normally do childcare in Stillwater, and we're not going to let our son stay at the daycare there during July because it's too expensive."

Find out what's happening in Stillwaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So what will the shutdown mean for Stillwater?

"The impact is pretty minor to the city since the has been ," Stillwater Mayor Ken Harycki said this afternoon.

The lift bridge was deemed an essential service and will continue to be operated by MnDot employees.

"In most months, we would cheer for a bridge closing because it makes downtown a more pleasant place to be," Harycki said. "But in July, after hearing from Curt Geissler of Lakeview Hospital, and learning how many calls they respond to on the Fourth (of July) it became a life-safety issue."

It is unclear if police and firefighter training was part of Gearin's ruling, Harycki added, but if that is not an essential service the city will find a way to cover that shortfall.

The fear that city and the school district would not receive state aid during a shutdown was quelled this week when Ramsey County Judge Kathleen Gearin ruled that state aid to cities and school districts must continue during a .

All summer school classes, early childhood classes, Adult Basic Education classes, Community Education camps and classes, facility rental and other activities in Stillwater Area Public Schools will continue to be held as scheduled.

But the construction of the  will be impacted, Harycki said, because electrical inspections came to a halt with the shutdown, in turn, slowing down the start date of the project.

Other  may include the forthcoming referendum, teacher licensure and reports the district makes to the state during the summer months.

Many of the critical services of the Washington County Community Services Department were included under the Human Services ruling by Judge Gearin's order, said Daniel Papin, director of Washington County Community Services. Others that were not will be appealed in front of the Special Master.

One service that was not included in the judge's order was state-paid childcare assistance, which will impact 366 families in Washington County who currently receive benefits under the state program, Papin said.

Gearin acknowledged  that defunding child-care assistance could “cause extreme hardship, force low-income parents to leave their jobs, and increase the amount of people on public assistance.” Nevertheless, the subsidies were not ruled to be an essential service.

Employment-related services were also excluded from the judges order.

Although unemployment insurance benefits will continue, Papin said, funding for the Dislocated Worker Program will not continue, nor will funding for employment services provided for participants in the Minnesota Family Investment Plan (MFIP).

As for the Stillwater and Oak Park Heights prisons, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) is in the process of reviewing the contingency plan to identify people who will report to work in the case of a shutdown, said John Schadl, a DOC spokesperson.

The commissioner was pleased that Judge Gearin upheld Gov. Dayton’s position that the incarcerated and their direct supervisors are critical core parts in ensuring the pubic is safe, Schadl said. A number of the services the prisons offer will be upheld if the state shuts down.
About 74 percent (or 4,200 employees statewide) work directly with offenders on a day-to-day basis, Schadl said, so there isn’t a lot of the workforce that will be cut.
Each facility will look at paring down services, but not eliminating them, he added. Education and work programs are in place to make sure there isn’t a lot of idle time in prisons.

"Keeping idle time for the incarcerated to a minimum is important because when there is idle time, that is what can create dangerous situations," Schadl said. "The ruling shows that public safety was a priority in the ruling."

As for local nonprofits, the shutdown will be a mixed bag.

"Fortunately for the thousands of people who rely upon Valley Outreach for their most basic human needs: food; clothing; household essentials; and emergency financial assistance to avoid eviction, foreclosure, utility service disconnection, and more; we will remain open and our services will not be impacted if our state government shuts down," said Kate Krisik, the organization's executive director.

Unlike many other nonprofits, she said. Valley Outreach does not receive any direct government funding or charge any fees for service.

"We are supported only by the community: individual donors, local area churches, businesses, civic groups, community organizations and private foundations," Krisik said. "Thanks to the generosity of all of these donors and supporters, client services will continue uninterrupted here at Valley Outreach."

But two programs will be impacted at Community Thread: the Medical Reserve Corps and the Transportation Services.

The rides program at Community Thread will more than likely continue through July, but if the shutdown drags on transportation going forward may be impacted, said Valerie Jones, the organization's executive director.

The Medical Reserve Corps will also be impacted because the state holds the database of available volunteers, Jones said. Community Thread has been working to create their own databases over the past few weeks, as the shutdown became more of a reality.


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