Government shuts down after no budget deal in Minnesota

By Andrea Billups

It’s lights out for Minnesota.

A Democratic governor who sought to raise taxes on the wealthiest residents bumped heads with a Republican-controlled legislature, and their protracted budget impasse shut down state government just after midnight on Friday.

Both sides spent weeks negotiating over how to deal with a projected $5 billion deficit. The talks, which continued in secret Thursday, included marathon sessions over the past seven days between Democrat-Farmer-Labor PartyGov. Mark Dayton and key lawmakers, trying to work through differences and create a compromise two-year state budget. But no such luck.

While Republican lawmakers put on a confident front Thursday afternoon and staged a symbolic sit-in in the legislative chambers, Mr. Dayton emerged from the statehouse Thursday evening telling reporters that a budget agreement was unlikely.

The governor, in a news conference late Thursday night, said he was committed to making it right, even as he defended his position, calling suggested Republican budget cuts Draconian. He described Thursday as “a night of deep sorrow.â€