Last Tuesday at midnight the federal government shut down. In Minnesota, hundreds of thousands of employees are expected to be furloughed with other roles like TSA and air traffic controllers expected to keep working without pay.
Programs like Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service will not be interrupted, but other programs like SNAP and WIC, could be if the shutdown persists long enough.
What that means for local and county governments changes radically, however.
The city of Hastings isn’t directly impacted. The city doesn’t receive federal funds for regular operations and therefore regular city operations will not be impacted.
The indirect impact on residents who may find themselves furloughed or working without pay, especially if the shutdown continues for a longer period, is one the city is watching.
“At the moment, it’s more wait and see,” said Hastings City Administrator Dan Wietecha.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the city provided aid like extending deadlines for utility bills to residents. While that option is not currently on the table, “if it lasts a month or two months, that’s a different conversation,” said Wietecha.
At the county is a different story.
Minnesota is one of several states where counties directly administer federal programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC.
Currently no federally mandated programs or services at Dakota County have been affected by the shutdown. According to Dakota County Commissioner Mike Slavik, early messaging letting residents know there would be no interruptions to programming was “intentional so people using county services that are federally funded can use them with confidence.”
Slavik referenced the more than a dozen government shutdowns over the past 40 years which has allowed the county to have a buffer that keeps programming from shutting down during short government shutdowns.
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” said Slavik.
Slavik estimated that Dakota County programming would continue for at least 30 days but “there will come a point where that will all end” if the shutdown continues.
The US government has shut down 21 times before the closure on Oct. 1. Of those 21 closures, the average shutdown length was 7.9 days ranging from just a few hours to the longest shutdown of 35 days which lasted from December 2018-January 2019 in the first Trump presidency.