Dayton files shutdown recommendations, asks for mediator

Gov. Mark Dayton filed a response this morning to Monday’s petition from the Attorney General’s office regarding the agencies and services that should continue to operate in a government shutdown.  With “a heavy heart,” Dayton submitted his recommendations for which services would be shuttered in case of a shutdown, and asked the courts to order a mediator to help resolve the budget impasse.

The governor’s office recommends keeping the lights on for only those services categorized as Priority 1 and Priority 2 Critical Services—services providing for essential public health, disaster response, and law enforcement in the first category and services providing for essential economic activity in the second category.

All agencies not providing services in these categories would be closed under the Governor’s plan, 46 boards and agencies in all. Among the activities recommended to continue are correctional facilities, unemployment insurance, a variety of public health programs, food and health care assistance, courts, and the Minnesota State Patrol.

Some 13,250 state workers would remain on the job to carry out these services under the Dayton plan.

Read the documents from the Governor’s office:

Dayton’s response to the Attorney General’s petition [PDF]

An outline of objectives establishing the categories of services [PDF]

Recommendations of what should be considered Priority 1 and Priority 2 services [PDF]