Minnesota’s state government shut down at midnight Thursday night because the DFL governor and his colleagues couldn’t reach a budget deal with Republican legislators.

The budget impasse grew from about a $2 billion gap between DFL and Republican ideologies for the 2012-13 biennium. Republicans want to cut for a $34 billion budget; Dayton and DFL-ers want to raise taxes on the richest Minnesotans and spend about $2 billion more. 

“I cannot accept a Minnesota where young people cannot afford the rising tuitions at the University of Minnesota or a MnSCU campus so that millionaires do not have to pay one dollar more in taxes,” Gov. Mark Dayton said in a press conference Thursday night shortly before the shutdown was announced.

According to the Star Tribune, Republicans also voiced concerns for youth, with House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, saying “We will not saddle our children and grandchildren with mounds of debts … This is debt that they can’t afford. It’s debt that we can’t afford right now.” Republicans refused Dayton’s late-night offer to raise income taxes on only those making more than $1 million a year.

As for the next stage, the Strib reports, the political rhetoric has just begun. Both sides will try to win over Minnesotans in hopes of using public sentiment to pressure the other side to compromise.

The University and its police will not be affected. Here’s a list of what will be.