The Minnesota Legislature adjourned yesterday without passing a budget that the governor would sign. If they don’t agree to a budget by June 30, most of state government will shut down and most state employees will be furloughed. Most political observers didn’t buy the claims made back in January by both legislators and the governor that they would end the session on time, so the current situation isn’t much of a surprise. The deep ideological divide between the two sides is unlikely to result in a compromise anytime soon, which means I should start an office pool on the length of this impasse. I was lucky enough to experience the last state government shutdown in 2005 (ugh, I’m becoming an old-timer) and that didn’t last much more than a week. I’d bet on a similar outcome this time around, but I hope to be proven wrong.
