Minn. Awaits Impact of Shutdown

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- On Wednesday afternoon, The Nonprofit Quarterly's Ruth McCambridge talked with Jon Pratt of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Kate Barr of the Minnesota-based Nonprofit Assistance Fund to get a sense of what a Minnesota state government shutdown would mean for nonprofits and what the two organizations are doing to prepare groups for what is expected to be weeks of life in limbo. As we spoke there was an emergency briefing occurring in Duluth, one of a statewide series of seven. The briefings covered not only contingency planning but advocacy.
Gov. Mark Dayton (Democratic Farmer Labor Party) and the state legislature have been in a stand-off about whether new revenue should be added to help resolve a $5 billion defecit. Governor Dayton supports new revenue and the legislature does not. The shutdown is due to begin today and advocates fear it may extend for as long as 8 to 10 weeks. Everyone had been waiting for a decision by a state court judge to be passed down. The decision laid out what the essential services were that had to be preserved during the shutdown. Nonprofits in various fields had lobbied hard for services in their particular fields to be considered essential, and therefore to continue receiving funding

Minnesota Government Shutdown Looms

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Less than two weeks before the far-reaching mechanisms of Minnesota's government might come to a halt, Jessica Lund's mind is filled with thoughts of snikerdoodles. Lund, 38, has Down syndrome and was helping to bake the cinnamon-sugar cookies with a care worker in a group home on a recent afternoon. Five other adults with developmental disabilities live with Lund in this 2,000 square-foot rambler that looks like any other on a suburban block of Golden Valley — one of many homes run by Hammer, a private non-profit that's funded almost entirely by taxpayer money. Like the thousands of the state's most vulnerable citizens, Lund doesn't have a voice in the legislative brinkmanship that threatens to disrupt her life.
Minnesota's political leaders failed to pass a budget by the end of the legislative session on May 23. Now, the clock is ticking down to a fiscal deadline of June 30, the end of the current budget biennium, when lawmakers are required to pass another two-year budget that will close a $5 billion deficit.