The shutdown indeed could have been avoided if Governor Dayton signed the very reasonable and balanced budget that was presented to him. The GOP more than met the DFL half-way with the largest budget increase in state history and without raising taxes, clearly demonstrating that the state does not have a revenue shortage but rather a spending problem. Senator Goodwin has yet to figure this out and we are fortunate that she is a non-factor as a back-bencher for the minority party.

The shutdown and its fallout is clearly owned by Dayton and the DFL. He had a balanced budget he could have signed with nearly a 12% spending increase and little or no job losses. He made the conscious decision that it was better to cause a lot of pain to many who are dependent on government to make a political point rather than accepting a very accommodating budget - far too accommodating in my view. If nothing else it shows the folly of being over dependent on government as the whole works can be shut down by one man with a history of erratic behavior in public office. Personally I hope the GOP hangs tough. As long as Governor Dayton brought this on we may as well use the situation to demonstrate how much of what government does is not necessary or essential.

The shutdown is completely at the feet of Governor Dayton. Instead of reducing spending the GOP increased spending (not happy about that) and Governor MIA wanted to continue his strategy of class warfare. He couldn't even agree to the lights on bill that would continue to fund the state until they came to an agreement.

I would like to point out that Ms. Goodwin along with Ms. Laine respond to communications supporting an alternative view with vitriol. This leads to them only receiving communications from rank and file DFL members telling them how wonderful they are. What happened to statesmen?

It’s day nine of the GOP Tea Party shutdown and all we get from the Right is a continued effort to blame Dayton and the DFL for the mess created by the GOP Tea Party. While the GOP Tea Party is serving up an ongoing buffet of fiction and radical ideology, the governor AND our DFL legislators have been working hard to help all Minnesotans by trying to stop the GOP Tea Party shut down.

Dayton made over eight compromise proposals to the GOP Tea Party. The GOP Tea Party made NONE! Instead they show up and throw up the same tired line that they’ve increased spending when their “increase” is a dramatic reduction in services! They fail to mention that they are driven by a pledge to GOP radical Grover Norquist that they won’t raise taxes on the rich! What happened to their pledge to serve the people of Minnesota?

Instead of having those making MORE THAN $1,000,000 PER YEAR pay a fair share of taxes, the Tea Party shills, fuelled by their own greed and bigotry, would rather impose on us their radical social-religious agenda, impoverish working families, slash services to the elderly and the sick, demolish our educational system, and set the state back 50 years. They are nothing but peddlers of a big lie and hope that if they repeat it often enough it will be believed.

We are extremely fortunate to have Dayton as governor and Goodwin, Laine and Knuth working hard for us in the legislature to safeguard Minnesota families and the future of the state.

John Haluska

How about those who have won life's lottery and inherited a massive trust fund into which they have contributed nothing pay their fair share? GOP greed and bigotry? More like blatant DFL exploitation of class warfare and fostering government dependency.

Dayton made the decision to shut down the government over even accepting a 90 day lights-on bill in a crass and very transparent attempt to blame the GOP for his incompetency as governor. His history of erratic behavior, economic illiteracy, and blind devotion to collectivism remains intact.

We are extremely fortunate that political lackeys Goodwin, Knuth, and Laine are political non-factors in this matter, especially with the wild-eyed, unstable incompetent who occupies the governors office.

Hang tough, GOP!

Dayton has offered 8 compromises, and a bipartisan commission has offered another alternative as well. Where is the Republican compromise offer? Are they capable of compromise?

John - it's called "sarcasm". Confiscating the wealth of anyone based on their "ability to pay" as determined by the government is immoral, wrong, and destructive to our nation. Once again you've demonstrated how difficult it is to argue with someone so ill-informed on all levels of the discussion, so once again I think it's time to leave this pointless volley. I'm sure you'll leave your usual vacuous parting shot that further confirms your aversion to intelligent discourse.

Renee - Dayton has offered nothing more than frenetic variations of a tax the "rich" agenda. The GOP, at the risk of alienating their base, recognized the irrational man they were dealing with and presented a balanced budget with the largest spending increase in state history without raising taxes. They also adjusted some of their priorities to address Dayton's concerns at the expense of those of their base. Education and HHS got huge increases, but since the increases were not as large as the DFL demanded they and the left-biased media labeled them as "cuts".

The GOP originally came in talking about a $28 billion budget while Dayton started at $38 billion. The budget presented to the governor came in at $34 billion - more than "meeting him halfway". Dayton could have signed the offered 90 day lights on bill to avoid the shutdown. He also broke his campaign pledge not to shut down the government.

Dayton is a one trick pony - tax the makers and subsidize the takers. He clearly owns this shutdown.

To paraphrase Hubert Humphrey, we as a society will be judged by how we treat those in the dawn of life - our children; how we treat those in the shadows of life – the sick, the disabled, and the afflicted; and how we treat those in the twilight of life – the elderly. Robert Menendez said that our society is diminished by those it leaves behind. Paul Wellstone said we are all better off when we are all better off.

To paraphrase Steve Taylor, to hell with young, the sick and the old.

In Taylor’s world all opportunity and wealth would aggregate to those who are already privileged by success whether by birth, good fortune, or their own work. It is a Calvinist perspective that those who are wealthy have it because they are blessed by an all-knowing Christian God and who are we to argue with a deity. Therefore, society and government, to show that it is on the side of God, needs to ensure not only that the wealthy stay wealthy, but that they accumulate even more riches. It’s all God’s plan. That’s why we are faced with this bizarre blend of theocratic, economic and social terrorism coming from the GOP Tea party.

It’s a crap buffet. We’ve already had that fight. Many times over and hundreds of years ago. And reason won. It won then and it will win again.

The purpose of government in Minnesota and nationally should be to keep us all moving forward in a fair and just and safe society in which we are all treated equally.

"Confiscating the wealth of anyone based on their "ability to pay" as determined by the government is immoral, wrong, and destructive to our nation."

That's how it's been done for the past 250 years or so. We've had a progressive tax system forever. Suddenly it's immoral? Should we place a higher tax burden on the poor?

Would you call the student account office at Macalester for me? I just got the bill for fall semester, and it's based on "ability to pay". I'm not kidding! I have to pay the whole damn thing because we are "rich", and believe me, it's a LOT more than that little tax increase Dayton is proposing and all you TEA partiers are whining about! I mean, talk about immoral and destructive, I'm paying to subsidize some poor kid who gets a big tuition break who happens to be a genius. Ability to pay really torques me, and it's not just government doing it -- why should some National Merit Scholar who lived in a homeless shelter get to go to Macalester on my nickel? Why would we want to develop some bright and hard-working kid who might find the cure to cancer? NOT ON MY NICKEL!! I agree. Ability to pay sucks, and I should get to keep ALL my millions, never mind that someone else helped me to get my education. Why the hell should I have to "pass it forward"? Why should I help to build a nation? I can move somewhere else when things implode here! It's a global economy!

Nothing like a good ol' Communist vs. Libertarian argument.

John Anderson would label this man a Communist: "The single most important question facing us tonight is: Do we reduce deficits and interest rates by raising revenue from those who are not now paying their fair share-or do we accept bigger budget deficits, higher interest rates and higher unemployment... We're within sight of a safe port of economic recovery. Do we make port or go aground on the shoals of selfishness, partisanship and just plain bullheadedness?" (Televised speech by Ronald Reagan, August 16, 1982.)

@Joe, I'm not a big Reagan person. But since you brought him up, you realize that Reagan reduced the top marginal rate from 70% to 28%. The governor and the rank and file DFL want to increase the marginal tax rate. What this did was increase federal receipts because the economy exploded in growth because there was a larger profit motive to invest capital in business. When you tax 100 dollars at 10% you make more than if you tax $1 at 100%, a concept lost on the majority of the rank and file DFL (and sadly even many in the GOP).

@Renee, so you admit that the federal income tax which has been around for 98 years hasn't even been in place for 50% of our country's 220 year history, which would make it the minority of time. Where did you get "250 year history" from? Facts are your friends.

"Facts are your friends."

See my post to Scott (above). I've corrected the minor error -- I got the 250 year number from someone who was counting early colonial taxation, and the Civil War taxes (which were an income tax, and progressive). But of course you are correct, and technically the income tax did not start until 1913.

I'm glad to see you believe in using facts.

I suggest that everyone look at those proposals, so they know exactly what they are agreeing, or disagreeing with in reality. Our rating in MN has taken another fall. We cannot borrow money and then call it revenue. If the schools were to be hit with a "delayed payment" it would mean that they would have to go and borrow money with interest. This hurts an already largely reduced budget. So, instead of "tax the rich" or "no tax increase" type of statements, we should be all looking to see what real proposals can do. I value our education here in MN, we are not like other states for the simple reason reality of that value. Both sides offered cuts, but one proposal offers less cuts then the other. Look at those cuts, look at where cuts would actually increase property taxes on our businesses, and residents who are already strapped.
I wouldn't let MNleg use the budget as hostage for social agendas either way. This is what is going on, in reality.

http://mnpublius.com/post/7570509751/mngop-no-new-offer-demand-more-power

I agree with Amy that we should try to be as informed as possible on all aspects of the budget issue and thank her for the information she has provided. It is much too important of a situation for folks to not participate, but participation should be grounded on facts, whether they go to the actual numbers or to the philosophies, strategies and constraints that the various sides are grounded in. To that end, I am curious as to how she sees this getting resolved? We have one side, the DFL side, with its underlying philosophy of shared sacrifice and shared opportunity, not constrained by oaths in support of national bring-down-the-government strategies. And they are trying to negotiate with the other side, the GOP side, which, through a pledge to Grover Norquist, is committed to not raising any revenue under any circumstances when it is clear that raising revenue is an issue of fundamental fairness and to not raise revenue causes irreparable harm to our most vulnerable citizens by slashing services which in many cases are essential to their very survival. It takes two to negotiate and for now there is only one side at the table since the GOP is intransigent. It is a fact that the GOP, driven by the Tea Party, not only wants everyone off the bus, they then want to scrap the bus. I think we get out of this when the GOP leadership and Tea Party legislators live up to their oaths office instead of their oaths to Sutton, Brodkorb and Norquist. Amy, how do you see it playing out?

John, this is no real answer to your question. I think the ppl need to force this issue. Not with extreme rhetoric, but with reason. The surcharge may have to be the way to go. I don't know about you, but I think most people and businesses cannot afford anymore large increases in property tax either, and especially without those property tax credits on residential/commercial properties.

@Amy, I've never heard the idiom "picking at hairs" I looked it up but could not find an explaination of it. The rest of the response didn't make any sense either. I'm unsure of what you are trying to say.

I will mention that cutting LGA completely along with a lot of other funding is a good thing. I always chuckle when people argue for the state taxing you (income or otherwise) $1 so that you don't have to pay a $1 in property taxes. It's still a $1 no matter where it comes from. However, the more local the tax, the more control you have to decide where it goes and what you will do with it.

I can mount an effort to replace a city council member a hell of a lot easier than I can to replace a governor. We need to return local control where cities and school boards make their own decisions. This allows us to live in an area that suits us the best instead of the state trying to create uniformed rules for everyone.

Although, this would mean that the liberal bastions who receive most of the LGA (where were never supposed to receive any of it) in St. Paul and Minneapolis wouldn't be able to steal money from the rest of the citizens of Minnesota so I can see why that's such a problem.

@ Scott, I would like the option to find a city that provides no services over basic fire, police and sewer/roads and then be taxed accordingly. Whereas others will prefer to live in areas that are high taxed but they get every service under the sun from their local government. Furthermore, there will be cities that have a mixture of all different types.

This will allow for competition between cities to occur and when a city is doing something that is attracting a lot of people then other cities will most likely follow suit. If a city is doing something that is driving population away then they will be incentivized to stop that action.

it's bad enough that the Federal government is stealing the rights of states to do this, but then to have the state, instead of fighting the Federal government they simply steal rights from cities and school boards.

The the lack of education in this country on how our government is actually set up further pushes us towards a pure democracy which will end up being our final ruin.

@ Renee, thank you for telling me what picking at hairs meant. I thought it might mean that Amy was saying I was picking on her. I'm hard of hearing and idioms at times are difficult if I haven't heard them before.

So what you are saying is that unless the state tells ciites how to spend their money, all cities will fall into disrepair and allow roving gangs control the city? So you are saying you have zero faith in our local city council and school board representatives? I argue I have a lot more faith in them than I do anyone in St. Paul.

@Amy, using Minneapolis as an example is a red herring as they usually manage to screw everything up since the state will always bail them out, which creates the current moral hazard the people of Minneapolis and St. Paul have. Returning to the way our country was set up by our founders would remove this moral hazard and force Minneapolis and St. Paul to operate in a responsible fashion. If you took the time to attend your city council and school board meetings you would be amazed at how often they need to change what they want to do because of a state or federal mandate.

@Renee, so since it's impossible to have an equal distribution of weath your goal is to support tax policies that drive us to an equal distribution of poverty. Good plan.

Your argument is also that we do not have poor communities in our country because of the top down approach to government since FDR with the new deal. Because my reading of history tells me that this approach has destroyed communities especially communities of minorities.

I lived in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington DC for 5 years, DC is completely controlled by Democrats who view the top down approach to government as superior. You have no idea what real poverty actually looks like.

Tax policy cannot stop drunks from beating people, stop parents from beating their children, stop teen suicides. Having a library does not change anything about poverty, I actually laughed out loud when I read that. Tax policy has zero impact on any of the examples that you gave.

Your personal example (a single police officer) sounds like you grew up in a very small town. These types of towns do not have a right to exist, if they cannot support themselves then they need to close up with their population moving to areas that are more successful at running their city.

I do not fee bad for your upbringing as I can guarantee that I grew up in a similar condition if not worse off.

"Having a library does not change anything about poverty, I actually laughed out loud when I read that."

It made ALL the difference to me. I wouldn't be where I am today without libraries and literacy.

"You have no idea what real poverty actually looks like."

How do you know that? You know nothing about me, where I've lived, how I grew up.

Unless you lived in Trenton, you haven't witnessed anywhere near the poverty I've seen.

You do realize you just gave me multiple examples of your upbringing, so I do know something about you...where you lived...and how you grew up.

@Renee, my father was never around so you're probably right.

@Amy, That's the problem, there is nowhere to move to because the Federal Government are constantly forcing all states to follow what they desire (whether it is Constitutional or not) and then the states are forcing cities to follow what they desire (again, whether it is Constitutional or not).

Politics in our country is set up to be adversarial by nature, what do you think the branches of government are designed to do? Sheesh.

Actually, Fridley does not have "a few businesses" but a large number of businesses that provide a lot of revenue, however because of the theft by the state, county, met council, etc. we have a lot of that revenue taken from us.

Because of this asset Fridley has, our property taxes are lowered, despite the desire of everyone on the council to beat up on business owners during meetings. I'm advocating something that doesn't exist in our state/country. The differences in funding now depends on the favored areas by those in power, not due to citizens of cities working to make their community better.

We have a perfect example today with Dayton's non agreement to the June 30th offer by the GOP. That was a horrible budget that is 2 billion dollars larger than the last biannum but also includes borrowing and what else, stealing money from schools by delaying payment.

In a bottom up structure the way our country was set up, the schools would control their money and the state wouldn't have the ability to steal it from them to cover up their mismanagement.

@Amy - I've never been an apologist for the GOP. So when I said "June 30th offer by the GOP" I am aware that the GOP wanted to delay payments to schools and it is something Dayton is agreeing to.

It is something that I don't like evident by the use of the word "steal" instead of borrow because I say exactly what it is instead of the partisan spin you put on everything (yeah, yeah, you're an independent lol). If you respond directly to something I say, it really helps if you actually read it.