Insurance Investigators not Considered Critical in Minnesota Shut Down

The Ramsey County, Minn., judge overseeing state spending in the government shutdown has ordered continued funding for several Minnesota Historical Society operations and continued pension payments for former state executive officers but denied a request to fund insurance investigators at the Department of Commerce.

Judge Kathleen Gearin’s order confirms several recommendations from the special master who’s been hearing shutdown appeals.

Gearin says the Historical Society should get continued funding for property protection, enterprise technology protection and animal care at its Oliver Kelley Farm historical site. She also says 14 former constitutional officers including several former governors should keep getting retirement benefits. That costs about $37,000 a month.

But Gearin followed a recommendation by special master Kathleen Blatz that seven insurance fraud investigators should not be classified as critical.

Instead of sending Minnesota’s elected leaders into a frenzy of activity, the nation’s only state government shutdown has deepened the political paralysis that led them to their budget standoff. Top Democrats and Republicans have given no sign when they will talk again about how to resolve the stalemate.

After blowing May and June deadlines to agree on a budget, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders have met only twice — once for less than 30 minutes — and have made no apparent progress since most of state government closed July 1.

There’s little sense of urgency, even with 22,000 state employees idled, 100 road projects stopped, 66 state parks barricaded, an assortment of services discontinued and the state’s top credit rating tarnished.

Much of the political dispute comes down to differences over how much to spend on health programs and social services and how to pay for it.

Republicans want to eliminate a $5 billion deficit by cutting projected spending and holding the two-year state budget to $34 billion, the amount projected to come in without new revenue.

But the state’s budget is being squeezed as enrollment and costs for public schools and health care programs grow and as the state, like others, copes with the loss of federal stimulus dollars.

Dayton wants to soften cuts by raising another $1.4 billion; his latest offer relies on either a temporary income tax increase on top earners or higher cigarette taxes. House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch have rejected both options.

Topics Minnesota