The budget bills, signed Wednesday by DFL Governor Mark Dayton, incorporate the Republican legislative majority’s provisions to cut programs for the working poor and balance the books by borrowing heavily from local school districts.

In the $34 billion budget, lawmakers are taking $58 million from TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, to fund other services, said Linden Gawboy of the Welfare Rights Committee.

"TANF is supposed to be used for poor families, but because they didn\'t tax the rich, they had to steal from the poorest of the poor,” she said. The Health and Human Services bill also makes it harder for people to qualify for emergency assistance programs to avoid going on welfare or becoming homeless, he said.

Schools in jeopardy
By delaying $700 million in payments to local school districts, the state will force them into massive borrowing, hurting K-12 education, unions said. They noted that a previous shift in payments totaling $1.4 billion is yet to be repaid, so the IOUs will keep piling up.

“School children should not be forced to pay for adult problems,” said Tom Dooher, president of Education Minnesota, the state’s largest union of educators. “But that is exactly what happened in the deal to end the shutdown. It’s an incredibly short-sighted, irresponsible approach to school funding and the damage will last for many years.”

Carol Nieters, executive director of SEIU Local 284, which represents many school district employees, said, “In these tough economic times, borrowing from our schools is just a cut by another name. What this means for our children is simple: class sizes will rise, programs will be cut, achievement will suffer, and more districts will look to raise property tax levies just to keep the doors open – taxes borne disproportionately by all of us so that multi-millionaires can avoid paying their fair share.”

Shar Knutson, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, echoed these comments and praised Dayton for pushing through a $500 million bonding bill to invest in infrastructure and for stopping several Republican-sponsored, anti-worker measures.

“GOP legislators’ continued insistence on protecting millionaires not only shutdown state government, but also means Minnesota’s revenue shortfall will continue into the next biennium," Knutson said. “We thank Governor Dayton for successfully stopping GOP plans to erode critical public services, take away Minnesotans’ workplace rights, and put tens of thousands in the private and public sector out of a job.

“We also commend the Governor for not only saving jobs, but putting more Minnesotans back to work with his jobs and infrastructure bill. Ultimately, the only way we will truly solve Minnesota’s revenue shortfall and build a better state is for the richest to finally pay their fair share in taxes.”

Back to work – finally
Some 22,000 state employees, laid off since July 1, are eager to return to work, union leaders said. Dayton said state government will officially re-open Thursday and workers will be back on the job.

Employees will receive a written, oral or electronic recall notice. Once they receive that notice, they must report back to work within three working days of the recall date.

“Returning state workers will be swamped with backlogs that built up during the shutdown,” noted Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, the largest union of state employees. “You can’t just flip a switch to restart all state services – it will probably take a few days and relief won’t be immediate for residents whose lives have been seriously disrupted by the shutdown.”

Major services were halted during the closure and thousands of private sector workers – such as those employed on state-funded road projects – also were idled.

While relieved the shutdown has ended, public service workers are extremely frustrated by the final budget agreement, union leaders said.

"Our members take great pride in working for Minnesota and we are relieved that they will once again work for this great state," said Jim Monroe, executive director of MAPE, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. "During the shutdown, Minnesotans saw the harmful effects of cutting state services and realized the important place government services, performed by public employees, have in creating a good quality of life for the people of this state.

"Having said this, we join Governor Dayton in his strong disagreement with the Republican legislative leadership’s insistence that the additional level of spending be financed through deferred payments to schools and borrowing against future tobacco revenue. We believed new revenue was needed to solve the budget impasse and would have preferred that the new revenue came from having the richest 7,700 Minnesotans pay their fair share in taxes.

"As Governor Dayton mentioned, having every citizen in the state pay their fair share of taxes is \'an essential part making society fair\' and we will join him in continuing to advocate for this fairness."

Seide said, "Republicans protected millionaires instead of Minnesotans. Their shutdown laid off 22,000 people instead of creating jobs. They ruined family vacations at state parks, delayed road construction, made beer lovers go thirsty, and they disrupted people’s lives in countless ways. Now their painful budget robs the future to pay for today. Minnesotans don’t want to keep kicking the deficit down the road; they want a solution that requires the rich to pay their fair share.”

AFSCME Council 5 will ramp up its “Tax the Rich” campaign at the Minnesota State Fair, he said.

Public workers who were unemployed during the shutdown will not receive back pay, but are eligible to file for unemployment compensation. A provision in the State Government Finance bill ensures that employees’ retirement funds will not be adversely impacted as a result of the shutdown.