This sums it up, with incisive brevity:
Unfortunately, the Senate’s agenda for Minnesota was not aligned with the vision that we created together. The Senate majority did not allow hearings on Paid Leave, Driver’s Licenses, Restoring the Vote or 100% Clean Energy. They did not hold a single hearing on any of our policy proposals or many of the policy proposals of others in our movement, such as common sense background checks for gun owners. Instead, they worked for months to roll back the progress we have made towards a caring economy: they opposed protecting the Healthcare Access Fund, which helps fund more than a million Minnesotan’s healthcare, they tried to roll back paid sick days and minimum wage for more than 150,000 workers, and they attempted to fully defund the child care assistance program. - ISAIAH
If I had to pick one thing that especially pisses me off, it would be this:
At the start of this year’s legislative session, the debate over child care policy was focused primarily on making it cheaper and easier to find amid high prices and a lack of options across Minnesota.
But by the time lawmakers adjourned this month, attention had shifted almost entirely to something else: fraud.
A state audit in March found that fraud in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), a prominent subsidy for low-income families, was tough to root out and likely more pervasive than what prosecutors have been able to prove. The politically explosive report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor could not substantiate some allegations made in an attention-grabbing Fox 9 story from 2018 — namely a link between fraudulent CCAP money and terrorists in Somalia — but it nevertheless mobilized Republicans and some DFLers to call for sweeping reform.
Now, Republicans are cheering the two-year state budget approved last weekend, which has a long list of anti-fraud measures and a freeze on most new CCAP spending. A CCAP expansion was a top child care priority for some advocacy groups and DFLers headed into the 2019 session. - MinnPost
The obvious solution will be available on Election Day 2020, or for some weeks before that if you vote early.
With the Minnesota session complete and the Wisconsin session about to end, isn't it amazing how similar the two states are.
ReplyDeleteBoth have newly elected Democrats in the governorship and Republicans controlling their state Senate ...
GAS TAX INCREASE: Wisconsin's Governor Evers wanted to raise it about a dime over the next two years as part of a long-term plan to pay for road construction and repair. Republicans said the gas tax is high enough already and killed the plan, opting instead for higher fees, cash and borrowing.
MEDICAID EXPANSION: Republicans rejected Evers' plan to expand Medicaid, a move that would have put an estimated 82,000 more people on the program, saved the state $324 million and leveraged $1.6 billion more in federal money. But Republicans said they didn't want to put more people on public assistance. Expanding it would have also handed Evers a huge political win, delivering one of his central campaign promises on an issue that Democrats say propelled him to victory over Scott Walker.
K-12 SCHOOLS: Schools would receive a $500 million spending boost over the next two years. That is less than the $639 million they got in the previous budget and a fraction of the $1.4 billion Evers wanted. Funding for special education would go up $50 million, 90% less than the $606 million Evers wanted.
BUILDING PROJECTS: Republicans punted in March on recommending which of the $2.5 billion in proposed building projects across the state should be funded, and by how much.
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Seems like no matter where you live, there are people that just don't want to help people ... that said, I will be staying in Minnesota with its "We like it here" slogan versus
Wisconsin's "Way too cold to be sober."
Regarding child care, I read that the legislature adopted Greater Minnesota Partnership's policy proposals including $1.5 million in child care grants. Of that amount, $750,000 will be divided between the six Minnesota Initiative Foundations so that they can expand their work on child care provider training and business assistance. The other $750,000 will go to the existing DEED child care grant program, and at least 60% of this funding will go specifically to Greater Minnesota.
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