Posted 6/27/01 Ramifications of state shut down harsh By T.W. Budig ECM capitol reporter Closed gates will greet visitors to state parks, highway construction projects fall silent, and driver license applications pile up unread. And the shutdown of state government due to the budget deadlock at the Capitol has already begun. ìWe need to start the process of securing some of those (highway construction) sites and start shutting them down starting tomorrow,î said Transportation Commissioner El Tinklenberg, speaking at a Capitol press conference last Wednesday, (June 20). Since construction contracts include penalties for delays, there will be ìsignificant costsî for the state in halting the projects, Tinklenberg said. According to Commissioner Julien Carter of the Department of Employee Relations, about half of the stateís 52,677 employees will be jobless should state government be forced to shutdown. A shutdown will not impact nursing homes, administration officials said. No nursing home resident will be displaced, they said. But state departments ó a number of smaller state agencies will be completely closed ó will be pared down to skeleton crews should state government run out of funding on June 30. The DNR, which normally has a staff of 2629, will muster 154 employees. The transportation department, with 5350 employees, will have a complement of 150. The 142 active highway construction sites in the state will have to be closed, said Tinklenberg. Corrections Commissioner Sheryl Ramstad Hvass indicated that less than half of the departmentís 3810 employees will be at their posts should state government shutdown. ìWe think we can only sustain that for a couple of weeks,î she said. Carter said talks with the constitutional officers ó the Attorney General, Secretary of State, others ó on dealing with a possible government shutdown will continue. State government is complex, Carter said. ìItís just not as simple as turning off the lights and locking the doors,î he said. Never before has the State of Minnesota had to contend with a possible government shutdown, according to the administration. The daily lost productivity of state employees scheduled for ìlimited interruptionî or lay-off has been cited at $3.8 million. People are worried about a shutdown, said Carter. Over the last week, there were 20,000 hits on the state government shutdown site and over 500 phone calls received, he said. The work status of Gov. Jesse Ventura and Lt. Gov. Mae Schunk will be unchanged by a state government shutdown, though the governorís staff will be trimmed from 53 to 11 employees, said Ventura spokesman John Wodele. But being a state commissioner is apparently no guarantee of employment should state government shutdown. ìI have not yet heard that Iím critical,î joked Commissioner Christine Jax of the Department of Children, Families and Learning. Since the Constitution clearly specifies that state government cannot spend money without an appropriation, the state needs to find a legal means to allow it to continue to operate beyond the end of the fiscal year, explained Carter. The administration is exploring several legal avenues, he said. Ventura, speaking at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Paul, said he didnít understand who a budget agreement hadnít yet been reached. ìI think they should go back and remember is that they took an oath of office, they took an oath to the people of the State of Minnesota. And in that oath they agreed to run the government, not shut it down,î Ventura said. ìThey did not take an oath for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. They took an oath to the people, all the people of Minnesota,î he said. ©Post Review