Dayton and Republican leaders still haven't closed the $1.4 billion gap between them. Shutdown? Minn. pols still get paid

Channeling mounting anger over what is now the longest-ever state government shutdown in U.S. history, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis printed a list of the 138 state lawmakers who are being paid while more than 22,000 state workers are out of work.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and 62 of the state’s 200 legislators have declined to accept pay during the shutdown and three others opted out of being paid beginning in August, the paper reported.


State House Speaker Kurt Zellers, a Republican is still being paid. Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, also a Republican, is not.

The paper’s printing of the list comes at the beginning of the 11th day of a state government shutdown that has the state’s parties increasingly dug in to their opposing positions.

Dayton and the Republican leaders of the state house and senate have not closed the $1.4 billion gap between them since shuttering state operations July 1.

The two sides did not meet over the weekend or on Monday. Dayton held an afternoon press conference to announce that he’s embarking on a driving tour of the state Tuesday — 12 days into the shutdown — to take his case for his budget plan directly to voters.

Minnesota Public Radio reported Monday that half of the gap consists of disagreements about how large the budget should be, while the other half is made up of policy disagreements on education and health and human services spending.

And while the two sides held no talks over the weekend and have none yet scheduled this week, signs of weariness and resignation abound.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press didn’t print a shutdown story on its Monday front page, and the Star Tribune detailed lunch joints near the state capitol on the verge of collapse because their customers — state workers – are not coming.

“My husband and I have trouble sleeping,” one restaurateur told the paper. “It’s to the point where you don’t know what to expect. There’s a concern that it’ll just be the two of us running the place.

“It’s just ridiculous. It’s time [for lawmakers] to compromise.”

Dayton told the Star Tribune in a story it printed Sunday that GOP legislators, who last year won control of the state house and senate together for the first time in 40 years must move from their no-new-taxes position to reach a deal.

“It is astonishing to me, but it is very real,” Dayton told the paper. “The only way you function is you compromise. Otherwise, government stops … the consequences of not compromising become severe enough that you compromise.”

But there is no sign of compromise yet. And Grover Norquist, the president of American for Tax Reform, told the Star Tribune that state Republicans should not cut a deal except their own with Dayton, who has said he won’t pass the GOP’s “all cuts” budget.

“Democrats want to spend more; Republicans want to spend less,” Norquist said. “What would a compromise look like? If you spend more, the Democrats just won … Spending more and raising taxes a little is not a compromise, it’s called losing.”