Politics & Government

Layoffs, Canceled Vacations: State Shutdown Has "Huge" Impact on Local Families

Inver Grove Heights residents share how the state government shutdown has a affected them.

Editor's Note: Several Inver Grove Heights residents spoke with Inver Grove Heights Patch about how the state government shutdown has affected them. Email Editor David Henke at david.henke@patch.com if you have a story to share.

Jim Wagner: Foolish. That’s how Jim Wagner, a 56-year-old Inver Grove Heights resident, describes the decision to close down Minnesota’s state park system as part of the government shutdown.

Three separate times, Wagner and his wife have visited McCarthy Beach State Park near Hibbing. Wagner has a soft spot for the park, and he planned to make his fourth trip to McCarthy Beach this week as part of a weeklong camping expedition to Hibbing and Ely. But the state shutdown put the kibosh to his plans.

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Wagner can’t understand why the state would close down revenue generators like the state park system.

“[The parks] are money making parts of the state that I think it was foolish to shut down,” Wagner said. While Wagner expects the state to refund his camping fee, he’s not sure if his reservation fee will be paid back.

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“All in all, it’s just a mess,” Wagner said of the shutdown.

 

Donna Anderson: The government shutdown had a “huge impact” on Inver Grove Heights resident Donna Anderson, who suddenly found herself unemployed last Friday.

Anderson is an employee of the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety and Technology, and she, along with thousands of other state workers, is temporarily unemployed until the government resumes its normal operations.

In the short term, Anderson is planning to cut out any unnecessary spending, traveling or visits to restaurants. In the long term, if the shutdown continues, she plans to pull money out of her retirement fund to keep herself financially stable. But Anderson also worries her unemployment could jeopardize her ability to make mortgage payments on her house.

Anderson spent part of the afternoon on Wednesday protesting the government shutdown at the Capitol.

“I feel that they’re playing a tug of war, and everybody that this shutdown is going to affect are smack dab in the middle of the rope,” Anderson said.

 

Darcie Pierson: A state employee, Darcie Pierson heard plenty of talk about a potential government shutdown earlier this year. But the threat of a shutdown became much more real when Pierson received a notice in June that she may be laid off if lawmakers couldn't agree on a budget.

Pierson, whose husband Travis is currently deployed in Afghanistan with the 407th Civil Affairs Battalion, was laid off last Friday. But the temporary layoff wasn’t the only thing that concerned Pierson: She was also afraid her family would lose its health insurance coverage, which Pierson gets through her work at the Department of Revenue. Luckily, the unions and the state agreed that state employees could keep their insurance coverage, Pierson said.

For now, Pierson and her two-year-old son are planning more trips to the library, city parks and the YMCA to cut back on spending. But Pierson may sell one of the two family cars and dip into savings accounts to keep her family afloat while her husband is away.


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