The shutdown, due to budget impasse, is the first in the state's history and the first state shutdown since Tennessee in 2002. State legislators are continuing to negotiate on the budget, but have yet to come up a compromise.

Transportation is the most affected state service. Driver's permit testing sites are shutdown, as are highway rest areas. About a fifth of the Department of Transportation's 4,800 workers are on duty, mostly on road-construction projects and emergency repairs and maintenance.

A protracted shutdown--expected to last more than a month--could end up affecting the transit system in the Twin Cities, according to the Metropolitan Council, which operates or provides funding to five types of transit programs. The largest of the five programs is Metro Transit, which provides more than 90% of the regular route bus service in the Twin Cities area, and operates the Hiawatha light-rail line. More than 40% of Downtown Minneapolis workers, 20% of Downtown St. Paul workers and thousands of University students commute to work or school by transit.