Report: Minnesota Shutdown Will Cost State Millions A Day

While the cost of Minnesota's government shutdown won't be fully known until the people who calculate such things get back to work, the AP has started looking at some numbers.

It reports:

Minnesota stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in the nation's only state government shutdown, as lottery tickets go un-purchased, tax cheats go un-pursued and 22,000 laid-off state workers collect unemployment and health benefits.

...

State officials won't be able to calculate the shutdown's full cost until it's over, but they have quantified some of the notable losses: $1.25 million a day on the lottery, $1 million a week on state parks, $52 million a month in uncollected tax revenue that idled state auditors would have brought in. The cost of other shutdown casualties - including 100 closed road construction projects - has yet to be calculated.

The bottom line is that "nobody believes the state is saving money" by shutting down, John Pollar, spokesman for Minnesota Management and Budget, told the AP.

Bloomberg relies on some analysis from Tom Stinson, the state's economist and professor in the department of applied economics at the University of Minnesota. He said, "This is not going to produce a recession in Minnesota or anything like that, but it's going to be a drag on the state's economic growth."

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