Community Corner
State of Shutdown: Impact on Locals
Minnetonka Patch is telling you how some residents are reacting to the shutdown.
Most Friday mornings, Irene Connors’ alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m.
But on this Friday morning, Connors slept undisturbed until almost 7:30. Connors is an employee of the State of Minnesota and, at least temporarily, a jobless victim of the state government shutdown.
“I won’t be working,” Connors said. “It’s a lost paycheck. It’s a difficult situation.”
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After weeks of intense negotiations, capped by closed-door sessions through the waning minutes of June 30, Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican lawmakers failed to agree on an operating budget for the coming biennium, .
Connors, who lives just east of in Minnetonka, considers herself one of the fortunate state employees, however. Because her husband is employed full-time in the private sector, she said, her family still has steady income.
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“There are people who I work with that are living paycheck to paycheck," she said. "It could be very very tough for a lot of people.”
While Connors is only one of 23,000 state employees out of work for the duration of the shutdown, she's one of only a few local residents who works for the state.
According to data released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), which tracks the number of state employees who live in municipalities across the state, Minnetonka is home to just one state employee.
Patch confirmed that figure, from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages report, with a DEED spokesman. However, Minnetonka Patch has located at least two other state employees who currently live within the city—still a startlingly slim number for a city of more than 50,000 residents. But that doesn’t mean that Minnetonka residents are unaffected by the shutdown.
Case in point is Greg Low, a Minnetonka resident who Patch caught up with just before 5 p.m. Thursday. He was taking advantage of what he thought was a last-minute state service at the St. Louis Park DMV—a vehicle title transfer.
"It's crunch time. I guess we're all procrastinators here,” Low said with a grin as he surveyed the seemingly endless line.
According to Hennepin County officials, people seeking help Thursday at Hennepin County Service Centers rose as much as 300 percent as they, like Low, anticipated a state government shutdown.
Other Minnetonka residents are taking active roles in protesting the shutdown. Marilyn Schmit traveled from her home in Minnetonka Thursday to be among a sea of state residents protesting the shutdown at the state capitol in St. Paul.
“I came out to support Dayton and him raising taxes, especially for the people with higher income,” Schmit told Patch. “I don’t feel I would be personally affected too terribly, but I am worried about other people.”
So, instead of getting dressed in work clothes and heading to her job at as a communications specialist, Connors put on her workout gear and headed to for a yoga class Friday morning. And during this newfound free time, Connors said she plans to volunteer within the Minnetonka community or visit her parents on the East Coast.
“Last night, I could not sleep. I was checking, on and off, to see what the current status was," Connors said. "And then by midnight, I realized the shutdown was on.”
Meanwhile, there are at least two members of the Connors family who saw the state shutdown as very good news—Mazy and Dazy, the family’s two Maltese rescue dogs.
“They are very happy to see me home as opposed to going out the door,” Connors joked today. “They are two happy campers!”
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Follow the latest shutdown news on Minnetonka Patch
July 1: State of Shutdown: Replay of Final Hours
July 1: State of Shutdown: Impact on City of Minnetonka
June 30: Countdown to Shutdown
June 30: Teen Clinics Await Their Fate During Shutdown
June 30: Does Shutdown Impact You?
June 29: Judge Rules on Essential Services
June 24: Local Nonprofits, Hospitals Brace for Shutdown
June 23: 169 Project, Taxpayers: Political Pawns as Shutdown Looms?
June 23: State Shutdown Would Freeze DNR, Close State Parks
June 23: Hennepin County Battens Down Hatches for Shutdown
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