State Workers Get Layoff Notices As Shutdown Threat Looms
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt have agreed in principle to end the budget impasses that threatened to shut down the government.
The tentative deal comes as thousands of 9,500 state workers got layoff notices Monday, and the state put in place a plan to shut down parts of the government by July 1.
To end the stalemate, Dayton and Republican leaders agreed Monday on a major increase in classroom funding, but no pre-kindergarten programs.
But the drama isn't over yet.
Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency is one of 17 state departments about to lose funding and Jason Moran is getting a layoff notice.
He says he and his co-workers' frustration level is high, and getting higher.
"It adds extra stress because you don't know what is going to happen," he said. "It's out of our control. We didn't do anything wrong."
Ahead of a shutdown, the Department of Natural Resources will stop taking campsite reservations on June 15. The Agriculture Department and Board of Animal Health, which deals with avian flu, will be sidelined. And the Education Department will close, putting in jeopardy classroom funding for schools.
The state has created a special response team to deal with possible interruptions. And the lieutenant governor said all of the budget negotiators are feeling the pressure.
"We are working just as hard as we possibly can to get this resolved," Lt. Gov. Tina Flint Smith said. "We really understand that, for them, this is not a political dispute. This is personal."
Moran's own job, involving the emergency response to environmental spills, will stop and he says politics -- from Democrats and Republicans -- is causing a major disruption in real people's lives.
"I think that successful politicians are able to work through differences and get their job done," he said "So I think it's a failure of their jobs to do what the citizens hired them to do."
DNR employee Eric Pascal -- who helps register vehicles -- is one of those personally affected, along with people from the Department of Agriculture and the Board of Animal Health -- he got a layoff letter Monday. In 2011 he and his wife were both laid off in a government shutdown.
"It was frightening and stressful and we certainly don't want that to happen again this year," he said
There are still a lot of details to be worked out, but Dayton said if the two sides can hammer out the fine print, he's prepared to call a special session for later this week, or early next. He says he does not want a shutdown or a showdown.
The budgets for the Agriculture, Environment, Education and Economic Development agencies still have not been approved.
And lawmakers still have to pass a bill to finish all of the work on the Capitol. If they don't, it comes to a standstill.
