Wednesday, July 20, 2011
A complete compendium of coverage.
The state of Minnesota officially shut down on July 1. Normal government functions will resume on July 21. Here is a complete compendium of coverage on Burnsville Patch. July 21: Shutdown Over: Dayton Signs Budget Bills July 21: A Week Late, A Wedding Short: Fort Snelling to Reopen Saturday July 20: End of Shutdown in Sight July 20: UPDATED VERSION: Governor, Legislature ‘Ready to Go’ July 17: Deal? July 15: Lewis House in Hastings to Reopen July 14: GOP Offer, June 30 July 14: UPDATE: GOP Accepts Dayton Proposal July 13: 48 Legislators Decline Pay for Shutdown July 12: Shutdown: A Bipartisan Failure or a Golden Opportunity for Reconciliation? July 12: Governor Embarks on State Tour July 10: Minnesota Shutdown Update: Three More Rulings In…
After working through the night, the legislature and the governor finally came to an accord.
Insults were hurled. Accusations were made. Pleas were ignored. But in the end, the people’s business was finished. Gov. Mark Dayton just signed into law all 12 budget bills passed in the middle of the night Wednesday by the Minnesota House and Senate. Dayton’s signatures ended the shutdown of Minnesota government—at 20 days, it was the longest continuous shutdown of any state government in United States history. In the end, Dayton kept his promise that he wouldn’t sign any of the bills until all 12 had passed through both houses of the legislature. At the start of the marathon special session, it seemed as though the process would be over quickly. In its first hour, the Senate passed six of 12 bills while the House passed five. But by 1 a…
Friday, July 15, 2011
Domestic abuse shelter clients stayed in Eagan while the Hastings location closed because of the state government shutdown.
Homecoming will be sweet for the clients of the Lewis House in Hastings, a shelter forced to close due to the state shutdown. Mary Ajax, president of Burnsville-based 360 Communities, expressed relief Friday. She said 360's Lewis House, a domestic abuse shelter, will reopen Monday. People who would have normally been housed in Hastings stayed in Eagan the last couple of weeks. That was going to happen, anyway, because Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearin on Thursday partially approved funding for domestic violence and sexual assault services, Ajax said. But news of the possibility the shutdown will end soon also helped. "Oh, there’s a huge sense of relief today... and that we can move forward," Ajax said. Eleven of its 15 …
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Guest columnist to parties: Bury the hatchet. The rest of us have.
Like most middle class people, I live in a bipartisan neighborhood. My Burnsville, Minnesota, neighbors are a diverse mix. From the richer to poorer, the Democrats to Republicans and everything in between. We’d like people to believe we all belong to the “in between” category. In truth, not all do, but our state’s recent government shut down has helped us remember our political ideals are closer together than we think. Like most places, campaign season in Burnsville has traditionally been a time when partisan clucking is at its fullest pitch. But now political campaigns never end, even when politicians shut down the government they were elected to serve. The shutdown might explain why neighbors at our annual Independence Day picnic seemed …
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Local legislators reacted with some skepticism after an independent committee called by Arne Carlson and Walter Mondale offered up a "third way" to solve the budget crisis that has brought the state to a standstill.
A bold budget proposal was released on Thursday: $2.2 billion in permanent cuts, $1.4 billion in accounting shifts and $1.4 billion in new revenue — including a temporary, across-the-board 4 percent tax increase on personal incomes. Those are the proposed recommendations from the independent panel of Republicans, Democrats and policy experts who came together to solve Minnesota’s budget impasse. The bipartisan committee tasked with creating a so-called third alternative issued its recommendations Thursday afternoon to Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican lawmakers. In a two-page document, the committee outlines a framework for closing the $5 billion deficit by balancing 70 percent of it through spending cuts and the remaining 30 percent by …
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The city of Burnsville will have to front up to $100,000 as shutdown cuts off funds to employee retirement program, EMS services and others.
As a result of the shutdown, the city of Burnsville might have a $100,000 hole in their monthly budget. “We have several payments that will be late in coming, which means that the city will need to provide the cash flow,” said City Manager Craig Ebeling. “Those bills will still need to be paid.” Most state agencies have been paralyzed after the GOP-led legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton failed to come to a compromise on how to solve the budget deficit. The state officially shut down on Friday at midnight. The shutdown could spell disaster for some Minnesota cities, though the effect will be muted locally. On a whole, Burnsville is far less dependent on the state than other cities in Minnesota. The city is not a recipient of Local Government …
Monday, July 4, 2011
Former Vice President Walter Mondale, Gov. Arne Carlson and U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger have called together a committee to brainstorm a solution for Minnesota and end budget stalemate.
Some of Minnesota’s brightest political minds have put together a bipartisan committee tasked with devising a solution to the state’s $1.7 billion budget gap and ending the state shutdown. The committee, which will begin its work on Wednesday, was created by former Minnesota politicians Vice President Walter Mondale, Gov. Arne Carlson and U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger. “We were trying to find people with superb professional backgrounds and exemplary roles in impartial public leadership,” Mondale told reporters Monday morning at Minneapolis City Hall. Members of the committee include: “This is as good a group as could have been assembled," Carlson said "With John Gunyou and Jay Kiedrowski, in particuar, we certainly have two of the best …
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Gov. Mark Dayton put an offer in front of GOP leaders, who promptly rejected it. Republicans said the offer went "backward."
Just as it seemed like there would be no further room for compromise in state budget negotiations, Gov. Mark Dayton made two significant proposals Wednesday. He offered to increase the cigarette tax by $1 per pack or create a 2 percent income tax surcharge for the 7,700 Minnesotans who make more than $1 million annually. But rather than move the talks forward toward ending the state government shutdown, Republican leaders told reporters assembled outside the governor’s office that “things went backwards today.” Dayton met with GOP leadership Wednesday afternoon to try to break a budget impasse that has lasted six days and left nine legislative bills untouched. A $1.4 billion gap remains. Wednesday’s meeting broke after just 30 minutes. …
Friday, July 1, 2011
The state government shutdown pulled the plug on the Lewis House in Hastings, one of just two shelters serving Dakota County.
A Dakota County shelter for battered women was forced to close last night due to the state shutdown. Officials from Burnsville-based 360 Communities locked up the Lewis House in Hastings at midnight on Friday. The Hastings safe house is just one of many shelters going dark. “That’s going to be the same all across the state,” said Mary Ajax, the president and CEO of the organization. “Every shelter is going to be in the same situation that we’re in.” One of the shelter’s residents nearly ended up on the street after she discovered that shelters had been closed or were operating at maximum capacity. The young mother, whose name has been withheld, was forced to flee her Minneapolis home after a violent incident with the father of her one-year…
Here's a sampling of what the crowd had to say late Thursday, as midnight approached.
As midnight neared Thursday evening and a budget deal between DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican legislative leaders looked less and less likely, thousands of Minnesotans—including many laid-off state workers—flocked to the steps of the capitol building for a "candlelight vigil" sponsored by two unions, AFSCME and MAPE. Attendees wore glowstick lanyards around their neck, waved signs and chanted "We want to work" and "Tax the richest." DFL Rep. Rick Hansen of Mendota Heights 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…
jennifer brindley
10:53 pm on Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Gee....for some reason I feel justice has been served!!! And I did not even have to go to court for it.....I had a horrible experience with the cops in burnsville and the ems drivers when I had a serious injury. Then when I went to talk to the sergeant about the behaviour of their men, I fell in their uncarpeted entrance, I got charged 2000 bucks for being treated like some criminal and now they … more ›