Surviving the Minnesota Shutdown

Today is the first day of the Minnesota state government shut down.  I'm not sure what to expect. But, both political sides having taken the matter this far, I think it will likely be a few weeks before anything changes. Politically it makes no sense to take the government to shut-down and then cave a week or ten days later. No, I think it'll be August before this matter is repaired.

Earlier this week I tried to determine whether there was anything I needed to do to prepare for the shutdown. For the most part, I concluded not. But, my tabs on my wife's car expire in July so I decided earlier this week to go on-line to the motor vehicle department and renew those tabs a few weeks early.

Imagine my surprise when I got to the website and found a note indicating that online services had been disabled in anticipation of the shut-down. The website told me that i would have to apply in person to get new tabs.

I remain puzzled by the cancellation of on-line renewal. In the first place, it seems to me that an on-line automated process would be far superior to an in-person process during a shut-down. In the second place, why would it be necessary to disable an on-line process three days BEFORE a shut-down?

My comments and questions are rhetorical.  The only logical conclusion is that the cessation of on-line tab renewal is intended to inconvenience those of us who might otherwise escape the shut-down unscathed.