I'm not sure what you mean by government workers making things as miserable as they can for everyone. If you're talking about the politicians, I agree. If you're talking about the rank and file who actually do the work of keeping the state up and running, they don't have any choice.
The MN governor could have signed a "Lights On" Bill for government functions that create revenue to not be shut down, such as state parks, sales of fishing and other licenses, but the MN governor didn't sign a "Lights On" Bill, NOR did I hear of any government workers, of any rank or file, pointing out to the MN governor and/or the media, that the state actually has some revenue creating functions and that it would be stupid to shut those down.
To me, that means they have the same goal: make this shutdown as miserable and destructive as possible, without looking at the millions of dollars in revenue loss, and future loss of revenue because of loss of goodwill towards my state.
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Spirit Deer wrote: Naturally, I have a lot to say about this issue, but I don't want to debate it on an RV forum
I do believe our discussion is in the spirit of the question of the OP. As long as the discussion goes fairly civilized, it might be good to see the different opinions on display, we might all learn something, and perhaps find some common ground. Of course the OP and/or Moderator can always chime in.
The Minnesota state DNR has made it very clear in the past day or two that you will be ticketed for not haveing a fishing license if you don't have a real fishing license. They are enforcing the law, but not issuing licenses.
The "temporary" licenses being issued by some bait shops and resorts aren't going to help you.
It looks like the shutdown will end soon as there is an agreement to end it.
It sounds like they've agreed now in theory at least. But for some stupid reason, it doesn't sound like a lot of people will be back at work till maybe Wednesday. Why the heck should it take six days, almost a whole week, to get people back to work? So that makes this essentially a three-week shut-down, almost, adding almost an entire week to the mess. I thought they were going to work 24/7 to get everything done and signed and all, but then I heard they weren't working over the weekend, so I'm not sure what the heck is happening.
I'm just glad it's over. Now we can figure out how much money we've lost and how much we'll have to plan the rest of our summer. And maybe start building the deck we were supposed to start in May, but couldn't with the threat of a shut-down looming over us.
Spirit Deer wrote: It sounds like they've agreed now in theory at least. But for some stupid reason, it doesn't sound like a lot of people will be back at work till maybe Wednesday.
Spirit Deer:
Thanks for keeping us posted on the latest happenings. Because of your direct involvement as an employee of the State, it appears that you have reliable information on the status of at least some of the services re-opening. Please keep the information coming. We should be in your beautiful State next Sunday as we head into the BWCA later in the week and would like to stop off at Bear Head State Park if it reopens in time. We do have a couple nights reserved there as a stopover, but have alternative plans just in case. Regardless, glad that it appears that you will be back serving the citizens (and guests!) of Minnesota. Thanks.
Yup, it seems the Governor finally saw the light. It seems the bars were running out of beer because the state inspectors were laid off. Minnesota should be back in business sometime next week. Not having rest areas open was not fun.
Whoops, just watching the news. The Governor has demanded a few things that the Republican legislature will not agree to. You should have a plan B ready. Getting darn sick and tired of the shut down - lots of lost tourist spending.
* This post was
edited 07/15/11 07:27am by SRT *
SRT
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I heard on the radio that they want to call a special session for Monday. The supposed deadline to get the final proposal together is 10 pm this evening. I suppose it takes a bit to get the final proposal into actual bills.
There was some talk of convening the special session today to pass a lights on bill so people could be back to work Monday. It didn't happen for some reason.
I don't work for the state, my husband does. He's a revenue collections officer so works for the Department of Revenue. With Revenue shut down, the state doesn't have much way to collect or disperse money for pretty much everything, although the DOR has operated with a very minimal staff throughout the shut-down so some money is flowing for essential services.
The legislature is meeting in special session right now. The news reports we saw today were conflicting, but supposedly they expect to have all nine bills passed by Thursday. Then the governor has to sign everything, which he said he would do immediately. As I understand it, the most contentious bills are still to be reviewed and passed, but at least they're working on it for a change. Then once everything is signed, I think they have to have an appropriations bill to actually release the money to get things open again.
Some departments will take longer to get up and running than others. My guess is, but I don't know for sure, but I would guess (stress GUESS) the state parks might be one of those things that can't re-open immediately, because they've had the water shut off, some of them have been vandalized and burglarized (don't get me started on that topic!), things will need cleaning in some cases, etc. Some have also sustained storm damage and have downed trees and other things that will need to be taken care of first, maybe.
So I don't think Bear Head Lake SP will be open this weekend, but I really don't know. As for us, we're hoping my husband gets back to work Friday, but we're looking for it to happen Monday or Tuesday at the earliest. We're hoping we're wrong though.
It's just been crazy time around here and we're sick of it. We will be in a financial recovery for the next several months to try to make up for the money we've lost. Our deck plans are toast, which irks me. But given the problems others have had to face in this economy, we're still counting our blessings and grateful for having a job to return to. And we're grateful the end seems to be in sight, finally.
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