Many Northland legislators continue to collect paychecks during shutdown

It is 10 days and counting for the shutdown of Minnesota state government, making it the longest of any in recent history.

After Gov. Mark Dayton announced that he would not accept pay during the shutdown, 14 senators and 48 representatives followed suit.

According to the StarTribune, that leaves 52 of the current 66 members of the Senate and 86 of the 134 members of the House who collected July paychecks.

Shutdown pay is going to 65 percent of the 92 DFLers and 72 percent of the 108 Republicans in both houses.
Northland Senators who are still drawing paychecks include Tom Bakk, Cook; Roger Reinert, Duluth; Tom Saxhaug, Grand Rapids and David Tomassoni, of Chisholm – all DFLers.

Representatives from the north include David Dill, Crane Lake; Tom Huntley, Duluth; Kerry Gauthier, Duluth; Carly Melin, Hibbing and  Tom Rukavina, of Virginia – again, all DFLers.

When the previous budget ended at midnight July 1, the state was forced to lay off 22,000 workers, close state parks and trails as well as rest stops, halt road projects and threaten many human services programs.