St Paul, Minn (AP):  Minnesota's state government is closed for business.  It shut down at 12:01 am CDT Friday, the victim of an ongoing dispute over taxes and spending between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative majorities.  Talks fell apart well before deadline, leaving state parks closed on the brink of the Fourth of July weekend, putting road projects at a standstill and forcing thousands of state worker layoffs.  Even before the final failure, officials padlocked highway rest areas and state parks, herding campers out.  The full impact will hit Friday morning, as thousands of laid-off state employees stay home until further notice and a wide array of services are suspended.  Critical functions such as state troopers, prison guards, the courts, and disaster responses will continue.  On Friday morning, former Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Blatz will begin the court-appointed job of sifting through appeals from groups arguing in favor of continued government funding for particular programs.  Dayton addressed the looming shutdown at about 10 pm Thursday, emerging after a day of fitful negotiations with legislative Republicans to say the two sides were still fundamentally divided over how much the state should spend the next two years and that the shutdown was inevitable.  "This is a night of deep sorrow for me," Dayton said.  Republican lawmakers had been gathered at the Capitol for hours, as they demanded that Dayton do what he had said for months he would not do: Call a special session so they could pass a "lights on" budget bill to keep government running.  The governor insisted he would only agree to a total budget solution that incorporated the many facets of state spending.  "I think the governor's insistence that we pass a full budget is not going to be of much comfort to Minnesotans who are going to see delays on the highways because construction projects stop," said Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, R-Buffalo.  "It's not going to comfort people who can't use our state parks, or who can't get a driver's license."  Officials in state parks had already started herding out campers Thursday, saying it would have been too difficult in the dead of night.  Also, Thursday, people rushed to get driver's and fishing licenses and offices and service centers that would be locked up by morning.  A stoppage in Minnesota will halt non-emergency road construction, shut the state zoo and Capitol, and stop child care assistance for the poor.  More than 40 state boards and agencies expect to go dark.  The shutdown in retrospect was something of a slow-motion disaster, with a new Democratic governor and new Republican legislative majorities at odds for months over how to eliminate a $5 billion state budget deficit.  Dayton has been determined to raise taxes on high earners to close the deficit, while Republicans insisted that it be closed only by cuts to state spending.  "If we don't start taking a different approach to how we manage our government, we're going to swing from one bad economic circumstance to another," Benson said.  "We can't just keep throwing more money at government and hoping that makes things better."  Dayton has proposed raising taxes on couples earning more than $300,000 and individuals making more than $180,000.  He said Thursday night that he had offered to target the tax increase to even higher earners, those making more than 1 million a year.  Republicans have opposed any new taxes or new revenue sources, arguing instead that the state should rely on spending cuts, including deeper reductions in health and welfare spending than Dayton is willing to accept.  

My Comments:  I think this bickering over taxing the high income earners and cutting aid to the poor and healthcare is a bunch of baloney; yes, baloney.  Certainly, mature, level-headed, wise and well-educated people can come to some concessions without shutting the entire state government down, except for emergency services; but not they can't.  I believe the reason goes beyond just this states government.  This country's administration isn't moved by such shut-downs.  In fact, I believe it's all in the plan.  A socialist New World Order cannot fall into place, unless chaos hits America first.  I think this is "right on track" as far as the White House is concerned.  Is anyone wise?  I can't believe it takes a total shut-down in Minnesota for them to realize that they "can't afford parks and recreations!"  Hello, is anyone home??  States have no business at all running parks and recreation when the country is bankrupt!  In many metropolitan areas throughout the nation, you still see street sweepers running along the sidewalks to make very certain the roads look pristine.  God forbid the roads should have a little paper or dirt now and then - we're bankrupt, for Pete's sake!  I live on a dirt road and it's not killing me!  The "hoity-toity" vanities of this generation is what is going to help bring this nation down.  Big spending governments all the way down to people with their hands out at the welfare lines (when they have no business being there - and I'm not talking about the REAL needy either) are all going to be left scampering for food and water some day soon and they can only blame themselves and their high-minded and entitlement attitudes.  Ultimately, sin is what is bring the total destruction.  The Bible says, "Because of their wickedness, do not let them escape; in your anger, God, bring the nations down" Psalm 56:7.