Chronicle: Minnesota College System Will Stay Open Even if Other State Agencies Shut Down

[SomeGuyInEagan]

"The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system announced on Wednesday that it had obtained a commitment from Gov. Mark Dayton’s office that will allow its campuses to remain open this summer even if other parts of the state government shut down on July 1."

This is for the MnSCU colleges and does not include the U of Minnesota system.

entire (albeit brief) read at:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/minnesota-college-system-will-stay-open-even-if-other-state-agencies-shut-down/33981

[geardaddy]

1. I wonder if the shutdown will affect metro transit.

[Morning Dew]

2. The Strib said that the Metropolitan Council had enough reserves to run for about 1 month

if the state shuts down - that would be both trains and buses. They didn't mention para-transit. My suspicion is that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, they'd have to run the para-transit as well.

I wonder though, if the courts get involved in deciding critical services, whether the Met council could be forced to shut down until the budget gets passed. I just don't know.

[MNGremlin]

3. Nothing is certain yet

There are multiple units of government that have enough money in the bank to cover costs in the short term following a shut-down (K-12 ed, post-secondary ed, even the MN House). The problem is that they depend upon "non-essential" state employees to disburse the funds. If nobody is available to actually write and send the checks, they won't be distributed.

I suspect that MN colleges and universities will have the funds disbursed to complete the summer sessions, but nothing is for sure.