The state shutdown is over. What price will political leaders pay for this mess?

None. Citizen Spin is still waiting for the fallout from all of those Minnesotans who -- a few years ago during the Northwest Airlines strike -- vowed never to use the airline again and begin supporting other carriers who fly into the Twin Cities. The strike ended and people returned to Northwest. Other carriers dropped MSP from their schedules and things returned to normal.

Citizens have a short memory and, besides, by this time next year there will have been another legislative session -- and perhaps a special session -- and there'll be a whole new bunch of things to get upset about.

The stadium issue comes immediately to mind. And the brewing movement to designate the orange "Left lane closed" sign as the new state flag looks like a newsmaker.

Trust Citizen Spin on this.

Please inform everyone at the Capitol that their petty in fighting has been trumped and to get their one-erm jobs done and fast. Like today. Enough already. - Eric, Eagan

Dear Legislators,
Eric says your petty in-fighting has been trumped. Get your one-term jobs done and fast. Like today.

Thank you.

Second question is why can we comment on your entries like on the bball blog. Are you scared? Eric, Eagan

Yesterday Citizen Spin stopped the Spinmobile for some gas on the way home from ... ahem...work. There was somewhat of a line and nobody was in a good mood and few minor flame-wars broke out. Spin noticed that these have been increasing in number and locales in the last week and wonders whether the public is taking its cue from the legislators and becoming a somewhat surly lot. This would be a bad thing.

Now to answer your Minnesotan-laced question: Citizen Spin doesn't want to. Citizen Spin is interested in conversation and good humor, not more speeches.

Spin does not want civility to be yet another casualty of the Legislature. It may be too late for them. We've still got a fighting chance.

By the way, and back to the issue, professional mediator Bob Awsum had some tips for breaking a logjam such as this. All Things Considered host Tom Crann (Citizen Crann) talked to him on this evening's ATC. (Listen)

I heard that the services, such as state parks, that are marked to stay open are only to be open until July 15th. Is that true? Or are they indefinately open? --Carole, Eden Prairie

The bill that funds parks is a done deal. They can't mess up your vacation for another two years. That job (messing up your vacation) now rests with the meteorologists among us.

Prior to the bill's passage, there was talk about a "lights on" bill that would keep certain services funded for 10 days, but the passage of the full funding package made that point moot.

Can't they just get this shutdown over with? I have been trying for almost a week to get a copy of my social work license, so that I can go back to school to further my education. All I get is a recording that the MN Board of Social Work is "shut down". Very frustrating, especially since I pay well over $300 every two years for the privilege of working in one of the lowest-paying careers around. I am not complaining, because I do love my current job. But, boys, can't we move forward and settle this thing so I can go back to school????? Help me out here, Spin! -- Joan, St. Paul

You've come to the right spot because Social Spin has just opened up the Citizen Spin School of Social Work. And, look, we're all ready for final exams. It's open book. Get through the shutdown with your humor and patience reasonably intact and you will be fully qualified to handle any problems, people -- especially young crying things -- and various situations that will face you throughout your long and illustrious -- dare I say 'storied' -- social work career. Because, hey, what's the liklihood you're going to find anything more dysfunctional than this?

In the meantime should you need a voucher, kindly print this page out and clip here.

----------------------------------------------

This is to certify that Joan of St. Paul is a root' tootin' social worker and is fully qualified to do all the things that social workers do for which they don't get enough attention or credit. And, by the way Mr./Mrs. Employer of Social Workers, it wouldn't kill you to throw a few more dollars her way.

Duly authorized this 6th day of July 2005.

________X________
Citizen Spin
Dean
Citizen Spin School of Social Work

Ventura gave away the store with his big reduction in license tab fees. This was the main cause of the state's big budget deficits. With this kind of deficit wasn't it not only impractical to take a "no new tax pledge", but irresponsible? People want to blame both parties for the impasse but shouldn't the governor and the Taxpayers League take the blame? -- Don, Minneapolis

Citizen Spin is not normally inclined to defend the legislative genius of Jesse Ventura but the license tab fees did not create the "state's big budget deficits." First, there was the little matter of a recession. But beyond that, Ventura actually tried to keep the Legislature from giving back all of the state's surplus in the form of tax rebates. He argued that at least half of it should be reserved for a "rainy day."

But it was an election year and the Legislature, giddy with the dough and awash in tobacco endowment money, well, gave it back.

Compounding that was the state's decision to assume the cost of public schools. Ventura advocated that but he also proposed expanding the state's sales tax to services and goods not now -- or then -- covered by the sales tax, as a way to help pay for the assumption.

The Legislature liked the first part -- the part about reducing the property tax bills, but didn't like the second part -- the part about paying for it -- so it didn't adopt the latter part.

Certainly reducing license tab fees was part of the mix, but a relatively small one. And it's worth noting that the license tab fees have not only been returned to the previous levels, but raised over when Ventura was in office by adding an extra year on the date of the car before they begin to fall.

Citizen Spin thinks that will hardly dent the deficit, another indication that the tab fee reduction had little to do with it in the first place.

Citizen Spin also thinks if the current situation proved Ventura right, it shows the utter depth of the state's problems.

As for blame. Well, yeah, there's plenty to go around. But blaming a particular party or group and the governor are not mutually exclusive.

Was the "no new taxes pledge" irresponsible? Citizen Spin is not inclined to thrust his -- or is it her -- answer to that upon you because then people will say "you're one of them when the reality is I'm one of you (the collective you). I'd rather be one of you.

It's lonely being a them.

Citizen Spin was leafing through the Web site the other day and found the story in which Pawlenty was endorsed for governor by his party....on the 11th ballot (or maybe it was the 12th, Citizen Spin has difficulty counting past 10). One less pledge, one different position and who knows? We could all be talking about Gov. Sullivan today.

What is the effect of the shutdown on road construction projects?

Several of the projects are shut down too. The concern is that where there are holes in the ground currently, groundwater will most surely fill them to overflowing, purple loose strife will sprout, a canoist will unwittingly introduce zebra mussels, houses will begin to pop up on the edge of the water, and the setting will become so idyllic that a proposal then will be made to build a coal gasification plant nearby. That, should the Legislature return, will touch off battles between environmentalists, energy interests, sportsmen, and nearby existing residents in the path of the rerouted highway that is needed to avoid the environmentally sensitive area.

It's simple. Enact a constitutional amendment to 1) Institute a temporary 10 percent sales tax on July 1 if the Legislature hasn't completely finished budget approval. When they get their job done, if it is too much, send the balance back in a rebate. The Commissioner of Revenue and/or the State Auditor would approve the temporary department budgets 2) Require a special election on July 15th. If
the legislators don't get re-elected, they lose their salary and expenses for any special sessions. 3) Require that the budget and any related items be passed before any social items (stadium, gay marriage, etc.). Then do you think they'd find the incentive to get their work done?--William, Bemidji

William, Citizen Spin guesses that the flaw in the process is the legislators would have to vote to change the system to this one. You might want to have the "pass a budget or we burn your house down" alternative ready just in case.

Is the rest of the country really laughing at us?

Citizen Spin notes the front-page article in today's Star Tribune newspaper while recalling the difficulty of finding news to tell on the third day of a three-day weekend, which is only slightly less difficult than the day after a three-day weekend. You watch; tomorrow we'll learn that Santa Claus has announced that because of the government shutdown and the inability of the Legislature to compromise, Santa Claus has announced he's skipping Minnesota airspace this December.

Minnesotans love to ponder their status in the rest of the country, and occasionally fret to think the tongues in Delaware are wagging with naysaying. Citizen Spin thinks that's just fine because she -- or is it he? -- is sure it would crush our collective psyche to learn the rest of the country rarely thinks about Minnesota or the overly-sensitive people who live there.

One wonders, however, why we are so concerned about 49 other states and not about what the people in New Ulm, or Pelican Rapids, or Cottage Grove, or Tofte think about the sad state of political dialogue.

Citizen Spin thinks the problem is more than just the individuals who make up the Legislature and governor. Citizen Spin thinks they mirror us all; a state where central air conditioning, backyard decks, and the disappearance of the front porch and sidewalks has encouraged our ability to meet others, consider, understand and ultimately reconcile other opinions with our own to atrophy.

Next question, please?.

Hi Spin, Happy 4th
Why don't we see any specific CUTS to personnel, not department reductions but
real cuts proposed to departments in these negotiations. When 9,000 people are
considerred non-essential, I wonder what other departments look like. --Mark, Brooklyn Park

Back at you, Mark. The non-essential thing is pretty much non-sense in the phraseology. Theoretically, non-essential means non-life-and-death in a short time frame, in which case there's a whole lot of folks at the Capitol who would qualify, of course. House Speaker Steve Sviggum on MPR's Midday said he prefers the term "core services."

Democrats tried to make cuts to departments, mostly assistant commissioners etc., and they were rebuffed.It was one of the early "hey, how'd you like a stick in the eye" bills the DFLers toyed with early in the session. And the state government operations bill has already passed and isn't up for debate now.

K-12, of course, has certainly seen plenty of cuts but, they're mostly school district cuts. Spin doesn't know how many people in the Department of Education have lost or will lose jobs.

The other bill is the human services bill and people are losing jobs. Spin knows of several whose jobs depend on state grants to do the jobs. Those jobs are currently gone and the state is cancelling several of those grants. But they just don't happen to be state workers.

Help! My friend's son was in a serious car accident and has been hospitalized
for almost two months. Now, he is ready to be discharged to a skilled nursing
facility, probably long term, as he has a serious brain injury. The problem is
that he needs state Medical Assistance (Medicaid) to be accepted to a
facility, the family has been told. This involves a process of being "SMRT'd" to
get on medical assistance as an adult with a disability (ie, SMRT means
something about a medical review). Well, with the state workers on strike the
family has been told that the SMRT will take a looooooooong time, meaning that
he will have to stay in the hospital much longer........ This seems so unfair
and expensive. Citizen Kane...or Spin, I mean, ...help me to understand this and
to help this family. This seems cruel and so wrong, regardless of party
affiliation. The family was told that, even under usual circumstances a SMRT can
take up to two months and now we are looking at even more time....
- Barbara, St. Paul

Citizen Spin believes it's good that the legislators went home for the holiday, for they will mostly surely have to go out to wave at July 4th parades and remind the voters that whatever is wrong with the current system, it's the other party's fault. Maybe they'll hear from some real people.

In an ideal world, your friend's story would get through and someone would pick up the phone to get the help he needs. This is known as the "safety net" and so far neither party has said there shouldn't be one for cases such as this.

But the lawmakers are mostly focused on today... right now. And if it's more expensive in the long run, so be it. Because the goal right now is to get through today... right now.

So the obvious expense difference here, while real, doesn't it make it past the starting gate. Citizen Spin hopes that someone in state government will read this and explore the situation, pick up the phone, clear the red tape, and give the family a little glimpse of what makes Minnesota different.

The debate in recent years has refocused our health care initiatives on those who can take care of themselves. So far, a brain injured child has not fit that description.

But you're correct. It is cruel and it is wrong. It also is another story that a state shutdown is not "no big deal." It is. And Citizen Spin can do little more than say a little prayer for your friend's family, and hope that the spirit we celebrated tonight with fireworks and parties still exists somewhere around these parts.

WWMGD? What would Moonlight Graham do?