7. Protesters supporting Dayton's tax increases and opposed to the Republicans, many from public employee unions, gathered at the capitol multiple times, including at the end of the session. By the day after the regular session ended, Dayton had vetoed all of the budget bills passed by the legislature, and said in a statement that he anticipated a shutdown would occur. Dayton did not call a special session of the legislature to further address the budget during May or June, claiming that the lack of agreement between him and Zellers and Koch would make it unproductive to do so. He remained in contact with legislative leaders, sticking by the $35.8 billion budget he proposed late in the session, with minor changes. As the end of June approached, Koch urged the governor to call a session to pass a temporary 'lights-on' bill while a final deal was reached, but he refused to answer this proposal on the grounds that extending the budget's deadline would not serve the goal of reaching a final agreement. Since the budget impasse had not ended by the end of June 30, the shutdown began at midnight of June 30–July 1, 2011. Shutdown At that time the shutdown began, all state government spending and operations not considered to be critical stopped. Suspended state services included driving tests, childcare assistance, senior and disability linkage lines, criminal background checks, and road construction. State government offices, state parks, highway rest areas, and sites run by the Minnesota Historical Society, among others, closed. The commissioner of the Department of Human Services, Lucinda Jesson, said that letters had to be sent to over 580,000 households that relied on the department for social services to notify them about the possible shutdown. More critical parts of the state government, including public safety, health care, benefit payments, and care for residents of state facilities continued. Services that were continued during the shutdown could have amounted to as much as 80 percent of state spending. During the first days of the shutdown, many programs requested that their funding continue, especially social service organizations that relied on state funding. To hear their pleas, the courts appointed retired State Supreme Court judge Kathleen Blatz as a special master. Dayton and State Attorney General Lori Swanson also both submitted petitions to the Ramsey County District Court when the shutdown began, asking for the court to clarify whether some programs