Category: State Issues

Taxpayers must not pay for religious education

The following commentary by Steve Kelley was posted on the Star Tribune website April 3, 2017:

Heed James Madison’s warnings on these contentious proposals.

Proposals to have taxpayers pay for religious education are being pushed in Washington and St. Paul. These voucher plans should be resisted. Our opposition should be based on arguments that can ultimately help us overcome our current polarization and recognize that shared American values can guide us.

For more than 200 years, Americans have fought for public schools that uphold the values of religious freedom, equality, and social cohesion. For guidance, we can look back to our beginning. Continue reading “Taxpayers must not pay for religious education”

Statement from DFL Chairman Ken Martin on Last Night’s Floor Session

“Rep. Greg Davids (R-Presston) has called for an apology from House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman for voicing the frustration that many Minnesotans feel: that women, and particularly women of color, are ignored.

“Rep. Hortman’s comments bring attention to the fact that it is not only women of color who are being ignored this session by Republicans’ actions, it is the thousands of disabled and vulnerable Minnesotans who will lose life-changing services; at-risk youth who will start school far behind their peers without an expansion in universal pre-school; and workers who rely on transit to get to and from work to provide for their families.

“If anyone is owed an apology this session, it is the Minnesotans who will be hurt by the Republicans’ proposed budget.”

People of Color and Indigenous Caucus Statement on the Passage of Anti-Protest Legislation

The following statement from the Minnesota House of Representatives People of Color and Indigenous Caucus was released April 3, 2017:

Following a contentious Minnesota House of Representatives debate on the Omnibus Public Safety Bill (SF 803/HF 896), the People of Color & Indigenous (POCI) Caucus released the following joint statement:

“Instead of taking time to listen to the legitimate racial justice concerns of Minnesotans, Republicans instead chose to silence our voices. Criminalizing free speech is fundamentally un-American, and this anti-protest bill shamefully punishes any Minnesotan who dares to speak truth to power about the reality of racial inequality in our state.

“Peaceful protest and the freedom of speech serve as the foundation of American democracy. Today the POCI Caucus stood up for the First Amendment by voting as a bloc against this spiteful and discriminatory legislation. We call upon the conference committee to strip this language from the public safety bill.”

The People of Color & Indigenous (POCI) Caucus is a new caucus first formed in 2017 and includes Reps. Mary Kunesh-Podein (41B), Jamie Becker-Finn (42B), Peggy Flanagan (46A), Erin Maye Quade (57A), Fue Lee (59A), Ilhan Omar (60B), Susan Allen (62B), Rena Moran (65A), and Carlos Mariani (65B).

New Polling Shows that Small Businesses Strongly Support Paid Family and Medical Leave

The following article by Shilpa Phadke and Danielle Corley was posted on the Center for American Progress website March 30, 2017:

AP/Jae C. Hong
A food truck co-owner hands a credit card back to a customer after taking an order in Burbank, California, July 2015.

A new poll, commissioned by the Center for American Progress and Small Business Majority, shows that 70 percent of small-business owners support a national paid family and medical leave insurance program. The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners, found the following:

  1. 70 percent of small-business owners believe that it is important to establish a federal paid family and medical leave program that is gender neutral and allows workers to use leave to care for themselves or a family member. Forty-two percent believe that it is “very important” to establish such a program.
  2. Support for a national paid family leave program among small-business owners is growing. When a similar poll was conducted in 2013, 45 percent supported proposals to create a publicly administered paid family and medical leave program. That number has grown to 70 percent in just four years, demonstrating the rising awareness of the need for such a program. Continue reading “New Polling Shows that Small Businesses Strongly Support Paid Family and Medical Leave”

New Medicaid chief says recipients should get jobs, pay premiums

The following article by Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post was posted on the StarTribune website March 15, 2017:

Seema Verma, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is shown with Vice President Mike Pence after being sworn in Tuesday.

Hours after she was sworn in, the Trump administration’s top official for Medicaid and her boss dispatched a letter to the nation’s governors, urging states to alter the insurance program for poor and disabled people by charging them insurance premiums, requiring them to pay part of emergency room bills and prodding them to get jobs.

The letter, sent Tuesday night by Seema Verma, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, also derides the Medicaid expansion that 31 states and the District of Columbia adopted under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Continue reading “New Medicaid chief says recipients should get jobs, pay premiums”

Mayo to give preference to privately insured patients over Medicaid patients

The following article by Jeremy Olson was posted on the StarTribune website March 15, 2017:

Mayo Clinic’s chief executive made a startling announcement in a recent speech to employees: The Rochester-based health system will give preference to patients with private insurance over those with lower-paying Medicaid or Medicare coverage, if they seek care at the same time and have comparable conditions.

The number of patients affected would probably be small, but the selective strategy reveals the financial pressures that Mayo is facing in part due to federal health reforms. For while the Affordable Care Act has reduced the number of uninsured patients, it has increased the share covered by Medicaid, which pays around 50 to 85 cents on the dollar of the actual cost of medical care.

Mayo will always take patients, regardless of payer source, when it has medical expertise that they can’t find elsewhere, said Dr. John Noseworthy, Mayo’s CEO. But when two patients are referred with equivalent conditions, he said the health system should “prioritize” those with private insurance. Continue reading “Mayo to give preference to privately insured patients over Medicaid patients”

Future cloudy for state parental leave benefit

The following article by Tim Pugmire was posted on the MPR website March 7, 2017:

State employees are urging Minnesota lawmakers to preserve their newly-acquired benefit of paid parental leave.

DFL Gov. Mark Dayton took administrative steps last year to grant six weeks of paid leave to about 32,000 state workers. But the benefit will soon go away unless the Republican-controlled Legislature approves it this session.

Minnesota Department of Health employee Blair Sevcik, who is currently on a paid leave, praised the benefit Tuesday during a state Capitol news conference organized by the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees. Continue reading “Future cloudy for state parental leave benefit”

Parents of Minn. transgender children find some hope in reassurance from Dayton, school officials

The following article by Ricardo Lopez and Liz Sawyer was posted on the Star Tribune website February 23, 2017:

Gov. Mark Dayton and Minnesota school officials moved quickly Thursday to reassure transgender students and their families after President Donald Trump withdrew a federal directive meant to protect them in schools, giving some hope to parents like Alison Yocom who are worried for their children.

“We were scrambling and trying to figure out what to say to our kids,” said Yocom of Minneapolis, mother to George, a 13-year-old transgender boy. In contact with other parents through the support group Transforming Families, Yocom said some of their kids were afraid to go to school on Thursday.

“Kids’ lives are at stake,” Yocom said. Continue reading “Parents of Minn. transgender children find some hope in reassurance from Dayton, school officials”

How Citizens United gave Republicans a bonanza of seats in U.S. state legislatures

The following article by Nour Abdul-Razzak, Carlo Prato and Stéphane Wolton was posted on the Washington Post website February 24, 2017:

This week, federal election commissioner and former commission chair Ann Ravel publicly announced her upcoming resignation. She didn’t mince words: “The mission of the FEC is essential to ensure a fair electoral process. Yet since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, our political campaigns have been awash in unlimited, often dark money.”

Citizens United is one of the most controversial Supreme Court rulings of recent years. Issued in 2010, it establishes that “outside spending” in elections qualifies as constitutionally protected speech, effectively removing restrictions that date back to 1947. As a result, corporations and unions have the right to spend unlimited (and largely undisclosed) amounts of money advocating in favor of or against specific candidates. Many, including President Barack Obama, have disagreed with the decision. During the past presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly endorsed this view, referring to the super PACs which emerged as a result of Citizens United as a “total phony deal.” Calls for change have also come from others within the Republican Party. Continue reading “How Citizens United gave Republicans a bonanza of seats in U.S. state legislatures”