Editorial: Stop wasting time

Talk about it

Marty Rickers, executive director at Worthington’s Client Community Services Inc., had an interesting story to share Tuesday. His tale: A 4-year-old boy — a neighbor, apparently home more now because of a lack of day care — has begun coming by his home and assisting him in some basic chores. Recently, Marty said, the boy asked him: “Would you like to be my daycare provider?” Then, Marty deadpanned, “That just might happen come July 1.”

July 1, of course, is when a Minnesota government shutdown would take place should the state Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton not reach a budget deal by the close of June 30. While Rickers and CCSI could see dramatic, negative impacts, so could many, many other employers — and, as a result, citizenry across the state, too.

Health-care providers across Minnesota would see their services curtailed severely, and jeopardized, by a shutdown. In Worthington alone, layoff notices to 470 Independent School District 518 employees have been mailed out. Public transportation services in Nobles County will be suspended, or made much more costly. These sorts of shutdown aftershocks — and there are countless others to consider— would not only stymie much of our state’s workforce, but ultimately result in a sharp drop in consumer spending (people can’t spend money they’re not earning) and put a huge damper on local economic development efforts. We won’t even get into local government aid — we’ve talked about that plenty in previous editorials.

It’s time for Dayton to call for a special section, as there’s no reason legislators should be traveling around the state criticizing their colleagues from across the political aisle (as District 518 board member Linden Olson so astutely pointed out yesterday). It’s also time, we believe, for Republican lawmakers to concede that there’s a need for at least some revenue. Then, we can bring this nonsense to a halt.

Tags: opinion, editorials, minnesota, budget, legislature, politics, dayton