Today, Ramsey County Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin, released her ruling what core government functions should continue in the case of a government shutdown and without the passage of appropriations. The ruling states that despite negative impacts of a shutdown, the Constitution limits judicial branch authority.
Therefore, the Court is narrowly construing its authority to order government spending to maintain core functions.
As it relates to childcare assistance, Judge Gearin ruled that while TANF childcare should continue to be funded, Basic Sliding Fee childcare would not. The court ruled that although not funding non-TANF child care assistance may cause extreme hardship to low income working parents, increase the public assistance rolls because some of these people will have to leave the workforce in order to care for their children, and may lessen for opportunities for low income children to succeed in school. These likely consequences can only be avoided by the exercise of legislative and executive branch discretion in settling the budget issues.
The Governor and Legislative leaders continue to meet to try and resolve their differences over the budget.
Whether or not they reach an agreement in the next 30 hours is unclear. So, it is very important that you contact Governor Dayton and your legislators to let them know the impact this has on your center, families and children. (from Child Care Works: Find who represents you at http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/ and call or email today!)
We are contacting DHS to see what information they will be sending out to providers. We will keep you informed as we learn more but please dont hesitate to contact me, if you have questions.
Valerie Dosland
MCCA Lobbyist
NEW Poll posted on the blog - Please let us know how you plan to handle the government shutdown.
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