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Guest
Is the whole nation next?
With the broadest shutdown in state history entering its second full week and no sign of a compromise on the horizon, political leaders in Washington, facing their own standoff and looming deadline, may want to ponder Minnesota.
Republican lawmakers who control St. Paul have rejected calls from Mark Dayton, the Democratic governor, to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans.
The costs of closing (who knew it cost money to halt spending?) are themselves swiftly rising.
No one knows exactly what the shutdown is costing Minnesota.
But whatever the precise numbers, the counterintuitive truth is that freezing nonessential state services costs money.
The 22,000 workers who were ultimately sent home are expected to receive unemployment benefits, which will cost the state.
Minnesota is losing revenue it would otherwise be collecting, including $1.25 million a day in lottery sales (the lottery is closed), an unknown amount in parking and licensing fees the Departments of Health, Education and Administration are not getting, and about $52 million a month that the Department of Revenue would ordinarily be bringing in if its compliance officers (now laid off) were scrutinizing tax payments.
By the end of last week, there were other hints of financial repercussions for the state.
Fitch Ratings lowered the state’s bond rating, noting the budget impasse, meaning that it will be more expensive for the state to borrow money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/us/11shutdown.html?_r=1
With the broadest shutdown in state history entering its second full week and no sign of a compromise on the horizon, political leaders in Washington, facing their own standoff and looming deadline, may want to ponder Minnesota.
Republican lawmakers who control St. Paul have rejected calls from Mark Dayton, the Democratic governor, to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans.
The costs of closing (who knew it cost money to halt spending?) are themselves swiftly rising.
No one knows exactly what the shutdown is costing Minnesota.
But whatever the precise numbers, the counterintuitive truth is that freezing nonessential state services costs money.
The 22,000 workers who were ultimately sent home are expected to receive unemployment benefits, which will cost the state.
Minnesota is losing revenue it would otherwise be collecting, including $1.25 million a day in lottery sales (the lottery is closed), an unknown amount in parking and licensing fees the Departments of Health, Education and Administration are not getting, and about $52 million a month that the Department of Revenue would ordinarily be bringing in if its compliance officers (now laid off) were scrutinizing tax payments.
By the end of last week, there were other hints of financial repercussions for the state.
Fitch Ratings lowered the state’s bond rating, noting the budget impasse, meaning that it will be more expensive for the state to borrow money.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/us/11shutdown.html?_r=1
