A government shut-down is an outcome nobody wants, yet for the second time, our elected officials in Minnesota have failed to avoid it. A Constitutional Amendment is necessary to make government shut-downs a thing of the past and to give Minnesota citizens the power to hold their elected officials accountable the next time they fail to agree upon a viable budget for the important work of state government. Therefore, I propose to amend the Minnesota Constitution as follows: Whenever a state budget is not passed on time, due to disagreement between the executive and the legislature, there will be two consequences: 1. Special elections for the office of the governor and every legislator in both the House and the Senate will be scheduled to take place in 30 days. 2. The previous budget will be automatically renewed, with two adjustments: proportional increases in taxes and expenditures for inflation, and one additional appropriation to pay for the special elections.