Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Silver Lining in the Minnesota Shutdown

In the form of an insult?

"Minn. employees seeking work elsewhere; 22,000 laid off in shutdown of government" July 11, 2011|By Steve Karnowski, Associated Press

Many of the 22,000 public employees out of work in Minnesota’s budget impasse say they will get through the extended layoff by tapping into personal savings, making household spending cuts, and relying on a spouse’s income or unemployment checks.

But others are looking for new jobs, creating the potential for a brain drain that would be one more negative from the nation’s longest state government shutdown in a decade.

Erik Pakieser, an emergency planner for the state transportation department, took to Twitter soon after the shutdown to shop his services for what he hopes could be a better-paying job in the private sector.

The state stands to lose an employee it spent a lot of money training, the St. Anthony Village man said.

“If I get a better job, great. If I don’t, I’m going to get my state job back eventually,’’ he said. “Who knows? Maybe there’s a silver lining in all this.’’  

What makes you so sure that job will survive?

Isaias Petros of Minneapolis works in land management with the Department of Transportation and said he doesn’t have much money saved to get through the shutdown. Though he is single with no children, Petros said he needs at least a temporary job to pay back some student loans. 

Related: The very essence of the banking industry

They get you when you are young, don't they?

“I was not ready for this,’’ he said, adding that he was actively looking for “anything’’ that could help him support himself.

Not everyone is job hunting.

Brent Anderson, who manages Whitewater State Park in southeastern Minnesota, has a wife who works and said he simply plans to cut back on expenses.  

I really should stop buying the Globe.

Anderson is spending more time volunteering at the Goodview Fire Department, catching up on paperwork, and thinking about painting his house trim.

One of the biggest shutdown casualties in Anderson’s family is his teenage daughter. She was scheduled to take her driver’s license test last Tuesday and was excited about getting behind the wheel.

Now she’ll have to wait because the state is not offering driving tests during the shutdown....   

What good is this government? Are the banks still being paid?

Jim Ullmer of Crystal, a commercial vehicle inspector for the Department of Public Safety, has been baby-sitting his 18-month-old granddaughter, whom he took to an antishutdown union rally at the Capitol last week....

Protest last week? And I never saw a word about it in the Globe until now?

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See: Celebrating AmeriKa: Minnesota Thin 

And look who IS GETTING PAID!

"Some Minn. state workers get paid" July 12, 2011|Associated Press

ST. PAUL - While thousands of Minnesota employees go without paychecks because the state government is shut down, many lawmakers are still being paid. And the list of workers whose services are deemed “essential’’ includes the governor’s housekeeper and his personal chef.

Un-flipping-real!

As the shutdown entered its second full week yesterday with no end in sight, politicians and public employees traded accusations over who is getting paid, who isn’t, and why.

The political leaders whose budget dispute caused the shutdown are still entitled to collect their pay, and more than half of them are....

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I see storm clouds on the horizon. 

How much longer are Americans going to put up with this shit?