Minnesota Saint Paul, in east-central Minnesota along the banks of the Mississippi River, has been Minnesota's capital city since 1849, first as capital of the Territory of Minnesota, and then as the state capital since 1858. Saint Paul is adjacent to Minnesota's most populous city, Minneapolis; they and their suburbs are known collectively as the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, and home to about 54 percent of the state's population. The remainder of the state is known as "Greater Minnesota" or pejoratively "Outstate Minnesota". The state has 17 cities with populations above 50,000 (as
2005 Minnesota state government shutdown 2005 Minnesota state government shutdown The 2005 Minnesota state government shutdown was a government shutdown affecting the U.S. state of Minnesota, the first in the history of the state. The shutdown was the result of a fiscal dispute between the Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and House majority, and the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) majority in the state Senate, that was not resolved by the constitutional deadline on June 30. The Republicans and the DFL disagreed over how much would be spent on state healthcare programs and public schools, and what sources of revenue would be used for this funding. During the