Minnesota's government is reopening for business after a nearly three-week shutdown closed state parks, laid off some 22,000 public workers and demonstrated the wide reach of state agencies.
Most state employees were told to start reporting to work at 7 a.m. Thursday, a day after Gov. Mark Dayton signed a budget deal that ended the nation's longest state government shutdown in a decade. It also cost Minnesota millions in lost revenue.
Not all services will resume quickly, and the work backload is expected to be large, but the recalled workers will restart a slew of services from the lottery to enabling licensing for drivers and anglers.
Even horseracing enthusiasts will have their fun back because the shutdown, in one of many examples of the government's reach, forced Canterbury Park horse track to close after state gambling regulators were laid off. It cost horse owners and jockeys more than $1 million in purses and put about 1,000 people out of work.
"I can't say I'm jumping for joy, because the whole thing has been such a painful and unnecessary situation," Randy Sampson, the track's president and chief executive said.
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