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Esme's Blog: Getting Paid For A Shutdown

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Word that legislators are going to continue to get paid during a shutdown is already drawing furious complaints from state employees who are about to lose their paychecks.

But it's not just government workers who will be without paychecks. It's thousands of workers who do work with and for the state. For example, SRF Consulting, a highway engineering firm out of Plymouth, will have to lay off 120 people.

Gov. Dayton has said he will not take his salary. Some Republicans will no doubt point out that Dayton is a wealthy man. True, but the vast majority of the people who will be laid off in a shutdown are not rich.

The Republican legislators and the governor are pushing the state to the brink at a time when the economy shows signs of a double-dip recession. Legislators need to feel not just the heat, but the pain of not getting a paycheck. A compromise has got to happen. Maybe not getting paid will make it happen sooner rather than later.

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