Four Post-Shutdown Questions for Oakdale's Legislators

On the night of the special legislative session to end the Minnesota state government shutdown and the hours following, Oakdale Patch editor Patty Busse spoke with Oakdale’s legislators in separate interviews. Here are a few snippets of what they had to say.

Oakdale Patch: Does Minnesota need a law to prevent a shutdown from occurring?

Sen. Chuck Wiger: Yes, particularly for the state parks, Wiger said.
“We have just incredibly beautiful state parks,” he said. “When you close those, sometimes these are family reunions, these are important milestones, events in people’s lives, you hate to see those people victimized because of it.”

Rep. Nora Slawik: “I’d really have to think about that,” Slawik said. The laws are set up so that the Legislature must get its work done by a certain date, and most years that happens, she said.

“I’m kind of a process person; I think this is part of the process; I think we all learned something from this,” she said. “I would hope this isn’t going to happen again, but I’m not sure it can be completely prevented through a bill, because it’s really kind of the politics that took it into overtime, not the mechanics.”

Oakdale Patch: What will be your priorities going forward?

Wiger: Having a budget that’s structurally balanced, getting bonding money for the Oakdale Veterans’ Memorial and the Tubman Center East and working on issues related to the Permanent School Fund, Wiger said.

Slawik: Budget-wise, legislators must have the courage to pass “a big structural fix so the state is better off for years to come,” Slawik said. Because the budget bills were passed with so little time for public review, Slawik said she hopes constituents will continue to let her know how the budget decisions are affecting them.

Oakdale Patch: Did the Legislature simply postpone its fiscal problems rather than solving them?

Wiger: “Yes, they did, absolutely,” Wiger said. “What you need to do is provide the revenue now, and don’t keep delaying it. We were up front. We wanted to raise taxes at the upper income level.”

Slawik: “I’m just very disappointed in the compromise and I really think it’s kind of a beg, borrow and steal plan that really shortchanges the schools and it puts what is our already shaky credit rating, we know it was just downgraded, at greater risk,” Slawik said. “Even with that, there’re more severe cuts to human services programs and healthcare and transit.”

Oakdale Patch: How do you feel about the way the special session went?

Wiger: “The lack of transparency has been very frustrating and that needs to be addressed for the future,” Wiger said. “The pressure of getting this settled ASAP has kind of short-circuited the committee process where we would give it due diligence.”

Slawik: With the short timeframe between when the budget bills were posted and when the votes were taken, Slawik didn’t get the chance to talk with affected constituents about the bills, which is something she would typically do, she said. “We were literally flying blindly,” she said.