Push Comes to Shove in Minnesota – State Government Shuts Down
Budget talks between Minnesota's Democratic Governor and Republican legislative leaders have broken down, and Minnesota has begun a historic shutdown of the state government.
Governor Mark Dayton says he' s made his last and best offer to balance the state budget. He says his compromise would have raised income taxes only on people earning more than $1 million a year -- an estimated 7,700 Minnesotans, or 0.3 percent of all taxpayers.
Republicans rejected it. GOP leaders say Dayton's way of dealing with the projected $5 billion deficit would damage the state's economy for generations.
The House Speaker says Minnesota cannot "saddle our children and grandchildren with mounds of debts, with promises for funding levels that will not be there in the future."
Dayton says Republicans "prefer to protect the richest handful of Minnesotans at the expense of everyone else."
As the impasse drags on, more than 23,000 Minnesota state employees are bracing for life without paychecks. The state is already shooing people out of state parks and campgrounds and closing rest areas on highways.
This same scenario is playing out in state capitols all over the country, but Minnesota is the first state to actually "hit the wall", fiscally speaking.
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