What’ will be open, closed during shutdown
"MN Budget"06/30/2005
Star Tribune
June 30, 2005
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATIVE
• Payroll and administrative services for retained staff and security for all state property.
BENEFITS/SERVICES
• Processing claims for unemployment insurance; injured workers’ compensation; Social Security disability payments; cash, child care and food assistance; adoption assistance payments; government health plans and payments to many Medical Assistance providers.
• Health and welfare programs such as guardianship services, senior ombudsman, birth and death certificates; Women, Infants and Children; senior nutrition and home-delivered meals, Emergency Food Assistance Program, toxicology help line and HIV/AIDS services.
• Residential and outpatient facilities for veterans, the elderly, mentally ill, chemically dependent, developmentally disabled, deaf, deaf/blind, hard of hearing, and sexual predators.
LICENSING
• License renewals for accountants, architects, behavioral health therapists, boiler operators, building contractors, chiropractors, drivers (commercial and regular), electricians, health professionals, insurance agents, lawyers, nursing homes, plumbers, real estate agents and social workers.
• New licenses for boiler operators, dentists, doctors, environmental professionals, lawyers, teachers and school administrators.
PUBLIC SAFETY
• Operations of State Patrol, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, state fire marshal; Stillwater lift bridge, highway ramp meters and toll lanes; aeronautic navigation and pilot weather systems; Gopher One buried cable and pipeline information service; Agriculture Department’s nuclear and agricultural chemical emergency response; biological control and soybean rust programs; farmers market nutrition program.
• Monitoring and control of air quality, toxic waste sites, disease outbreaks, invasive species of exotic plant diseases and pests.
• Enforcement of laws governing hunting, fishing, boating, wetlands and vehicles.
• Department of Natural Resources firearms and vehicle safety training, fire suppression, flood and dam safety and hatchery and tree nursery maintenance.
REGULATION
• Disciplinary actions against dentists, doctors, lawyers and nursing homes.
• Inspections of dairy products, grain, fruits, meat, seed potatoes, vegetables; drug researchers, drug wholesalers, home health-care facilities, hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies; boilers, car dealers, carnivals, electrical wiring, elevators, high-pressure piping, manufactured homes, new buildings, pipelines, plumbing, swimming pools, well-drillers; municipal water systems, school buses.
• Regulation of child labor; commercial livestock feed, livestock weighing, truck weights; workplace safety.
• Investigation of suspected cases of rabies and foreign animal diseases; highway crashes and fatalities; complaints about health professionals, nursing homes and other health facilities; complaints against lawyers and veterinarians.
RECREATION
• Minnesota Zoo: fully staffed and operating.
SCHOOLS
• Continued funding for most state education aids, including charter schools, Head Start, special ed and breakfast, lunch and milk programs; Preparatory Assistance Summer School at the Faribault Academies for the Deaf and Blind continues as scheduled.
TRANSPORTATION
• Construction of 200 state highway projects, plus new headquarters buildings in St. Paul for the departments of agriculture, health and human services.
• Metro Transit and other transit services for at least one month; Metro Mobility for the disabled for the duration of a shutdown.
OTHER
• Housing Finance Agency, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Agency.
CLOSED
BENEFITS/SERVICES
• MinnesotaCare will not take new enrollments in the state health plan for the working poor.
• Injured and displaced workers will lose state call-in, vocational and rehabilitation services. Similar services for the blind also suspended.
FUNDING
• No farm loans through the Rural Finance Agency and applications for Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program farmland set-asides.
• No funding for libraries, early childhood programs, adult education, local public health agencies, environmental grants and loans for businesses, individuals, nonprofits and units of government.
LICENSING
• New driver’s licenses won’t be issued, and driver testing suspended. Most new professional licenses won’t be available, either.
• No permits for air and water quality and most oversize-overweight truck loads, except for construction equipment and load hauling at highway projects.
OTHER
• No enforcement of minimum wage, prevailing wage and overtime laws, along with routine workplace safety inspections.
• Arts Board, Barber and Cosmetology Examiners Board, Dietetics and Nutrition Practice Board, Disability Council, Environmental Assistance, Explore Minnesota Tourism, Mediation Services, Ombudsperson for Families, Physical Therapy Board, Public Utilities Commission, Water and Soil Resources Board, Workers Compensation Court of Appeals.
PUBLIC SAFETY
• No traffic information via message boards, radio broadcasts, video feeds and the Internet.
• No gasoline pump inspection and implementation of state 2 percent biodiesel requirement.
RECREATION
• State parks, picnic areas and campsites, except for Soudan Underground Laboratory support staff. A bill that could keep all parks open may be acted upon today.
• Most highway rest areas, some of which close as early as today. Eight rest areas operated by other parties will remain open.
• No public tours of the governor’s residence today.