The governor’s blame games
07/02/2005
West Central Tribune
Public Forum, July 2, 2005
Saturday, July 02, 2005
At 11:59 p.m. on June 30, the Republican majority in the state House of Representatives voted to shut down government for the first time in the 148 years of Minnesota statehood.
Earlier in the day, every Senate Democrat passed legislation to keep state government running.
Every Senate Democrat voted to keep 10,000 state workers on the job, voted to keep the highway rest stops open, voted to keep the warning signals on the highways operating, and voted to allow Minnesotans to get their driver’s licenses.
All the House Republicans had to do was approve the Senate’s “lights-on” bill and the government would not have shut down.
Instead, 67 of the 68 House Republicans voted to lock out 10,000 state workers, voted to close our rest stops, voted to shut off the highway signs and voted to not allow Minnesotans to get their driver’s licenses.
Every single DFLer in the state Legislature - every DFL senator and every DFL representative - voted to keep government open. Every DFLer voted to keep 10,000 state workers working, and every DFLer voted to keep our rest stops open. Every DFLer voted to keep the highway signs on, and every DFLer voted to let our taxpayers get their driver’s licenses.
Every Republican senator, except one, and every Republican representative, except one, voted to shut down our state government.
On the morning after, 10,000 state employees wonder if and when they will work again, highway rest areas sit dark on the busiest travel weekend of the year, while highway signs are turned off and thousands of Minnesotans in need of driver’s licenses will go without them.
Meanwhile, all of Minnesota waits for leadership from a governor seemingly unconcerned about completing the task at hand. In place of leadership, we get more blame games from a chief executive clearly unable to lead his own party and unwilling to do what’s best for the state.
-State Sen. Gary Kubly and 23 other DFL state senators