Neighbor,
Looks like the governor is preparing to throw his unilateral weight on Minnesotans once more by shutting down our state at midnight Friday.
While his announcement won’t be official until this evening, reports indicate that bars, restaurants, health clubs, and entertainment venues all will be shut down for one month. That’s four weeks, but it could turn into six weeks or even more depending on what the governor decides.
As has been the case throughout the last eight months we’ve been living under the governor’s unilateral rule, there seem to be glaring inconsistencies in what he will personally shut down and what he will personally allow to remain open. Health clubs are on the governor’s blacklist, but it sounds like he’ll allow hair salons and barber shops to remain open.
The governor once again has cut the Legislature and Minnesotans in general out of the decision-making process. There has been a major lack of communication from governor and his administration with businesses. Instead of working with our entrepreneurs and keeping them up to speed, the governor is once again springing enormous decisions on them with almost zero notice.
House Republicans have voted at least six times to end the governor’s solo rule and restore the Legislature as the co-equal branch of government that it is, but House Democrats continue to block those efforts. Lawsuits have been filed with the same intent but have failed to get traction in our state’s liberal court system.
Many constituents have reached out to me to express their concern and frustration over the damage the governor is causing and word of this new shutdown he plans is putting people even more on edge. The governor’s shutdowns already have caused great hardship in our state, costing many Minnesotans their livelihood. It is difficult to imagine the devastation the governor will cause by shutting us down for another month … or even longer.
The governor is scheduled to make an official announcement on this subject at 6 p.m. today, so we’ll have more of the fine details at that point. As always, your feedback is welcome.
-Steve