Dear Neighbors,
It’s hard to believe that Halloween and November are nearly here — fall is flying by! As someone who loves cross country skiing, I might be one of the few who is happy that winter is quickly approaching and that we’re projected to have more snow than usual!
But before that happens, we have to get through another dreaded time change. November 3rd marks the end of daylight saving time for the year. I think ending the spring forward and fall back every year is worthy of consideration.
This week’s update takes a closer look at the Jobs Budget enacted this year.
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day
Saturday, October 26th is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, a chance for people to safely discard unused or expired prescription drugs. According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.9 million Americans misused controlled prescription drugs. The study found that the majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet.
These events provide an opportunity for Minnesotans to prevent drug addiction and overdose deaths. You can learn more and find a collection site here. You can also find more information from Hennepin County here and Anoka County here (details for Hennepin County are at the bottom of the page).
New this year: law enforcement officials will also accept vaping devices as part of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Jobs Budget
This year’s Jobs Budget was a bipartisan compromise between the House DFL, Governor Walz, and the Senate GOP. While it does include the strongest wage theft prevention law in the country, Senate Republicans refused to pass important measures to improve economic security, like paid family leave and earned sick and safe time.
Here are some of the highlights:
Wage Theft: One of the biggest accomplishments of the 2019 legislative session is passing the strongest wage theft laws in the country. Combating wage theft was a high priority for the House heading into session, seeking to ensure that when Minnesota workers receive what they have rightfully earned — and that employers who steal wages from their workers should be required to pay the consequences.
The final bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Walz genuinely strengthens our laws to combat wage theft in the following ways:
- Makes wage theft a crime under the criminal code. An employer who deprives workers of their full wages with the intent to defraud can be charged with a misdemeanor (for thefts less than $500), a gross misdemeanor ($500-$1,000), or a felony (more than $1,000). The bill allows aggregation of claims so that an employer who steals $100 from an employee each paycheck for several months can be charged with a felony.
- Requires employers to provide written notice to workers on the terms of their employment, including their rate of pay, benefits (like paid time off), deductions (e.g. insurance or uniforms), and pay periods. This should make it clear to workers when they are supposed to get paid and how much they should be paid.
- Increases funding to the Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) by $3.1 million to hire 12 additional investigators in its wage and hour enforcement division. These investigators will focus on cracking down on wage theft.
- Clearly establishes that both the Attorney General’s office and DOLI can civilly enforce the failure to pay wages earned.
- Enhances DOLI’s enforcement powers, including the authority to enter a place of business, collect evidence, and engage in private interviews with workers.
- Increases penalties for employers who fail to turn over employee payroll records.
Wage theft takes many forms and affects millions of workers nationwide. In Minnesota alone, 39,000 workers face wage theft each year, costing them $12 million in lost wages.
Broadband Funding: After years of little to no funding for rural broadband, this year’s budget includes $40 million in broadband grants.
For the first time in more than two years, communities in Minnesota without access to high-speed internet will be able to apply to the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) for broadband grants.
Equity Funding: In 2016, the Legislature began an effort to provide funding to various community organizations and programs that seek to train workers, help low-income individuals obtain economic security, and eliminate racial disparities. The 2019 Jobs bill continues this commitment by providing funding to numerous organizations and programs, including the following.
- Hmong American Partnership – $1M
- Minneapolis Foundation (North at Work) – $800,000
- Summit Academy – $2M
- CLUES – $1.25M
- Opportunities Ind. Centers (OICs) – $1M
- Ujamaa Place – $1M
- Better Futures – $300,000
- Hmong Chamber of Commerce – $250,000
- EMERGE – $500,000
- American Indian OIC – $1M
- Neighborhood Development Center – $1.3M
- MEDA – $800,000
- Twin Cities R!SE – $1.4M
- Cedar-Riverside Partnership – $300,000
- YWCA St. Paul – $250,000
- Big Bros./Big Sisters – $500,000
- Rondo Community Land Trust – $250,000
- YWCA Mpls – $250,000
- White Earth Nation – $250,000
- Displaced Homemaker Program – $200,000
- Avivo – $500,000
The budget also funds several competitive grant programs, whereby DEED will award grants to additional organizations that meet certain criteria.
These grant programs include the following:
- Pathways to Prosperity ($11.4 million): These are grants made to organizations that provide training to adults facing the greatest employment disparities and that focus on high-demand occupations.
- Youth at Work ($8.2 million): These grants are for organizations that serve at-risk youth in economically disadvantaged areas.
- Self Sufficiency Grants ($2 million): Grant recipients must focus on low-income communities, communities of color, and families with intergenerational poverty.
- Southeast Asian Grants ($2 million): These grants go to organizations that provide services to relieve economic disparities in the SE Asian community.
- Propel Nonprofits ($500,000): These grants are for smaller nonprofits that work with historically underserved cultural communities.
- Women in Nontraditional Jobs ($1.5 million): This grant program works to increase the number of women in high-wage, high-demand, nontraditional occupations.
- Youthprise ($1 million): Grants for communities with high concentrations of East African youth.
Helping Workers with Disabilities: The Jobs budget provides a $7 million increase for Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS) that will allow DEED to eliminate the waiting list for workers with severe disabilities to receive the assistance they need. The bill also contains $1.8 million in new funding from the Workforce Development Fund for services specifically targeted for workers with mental illnesses. In addition, State Services for the Blind at DEED will receive $12.85 million over the next two years.
Child Care: The special session Jobs & Energy bill maintains the House DFL commitment to alleviating the shortage of child care providers in the state. The final bill includes a $750,000 appropriation for child care community grants, which will be awarded to communities that develop innovative strategies to increase the number of child care slots. The final bill also includes $750,000 for grants to the six Initiative Foundations in the state that will support training programs for child care providers, and lead local efforts to develop a community plan on child care.
Maintain Funding for Job Creation: The Minnesota Investment Fund (MIF) and Job Creation Fund (JCF) are two of the best job creation tools at DEED that encourage Minnesota businesses to expand and out-of-state businesses to set up shop in Minnesota. The JCF is funded at $16 million, while MIF received funding of $23.9 million.
The Job Skills Partnership received $8.4 million in funding and the Greater Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure grant program received $3.6 million. The Trade Office at DEED, which exists to help small Minnesota businesses expand their exports in foreign markets, received a total of $4.6 million.
SciTechsperience: This program supports opportunities for STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) college students in Minnesota to obtain paid internships with small and medium-sized employers. In 2019, the final Jobs budget appropriated $1.75 million to support internships for at least 200 students each year.
Helping Minnesota Dairy Farmers: The Jobs budget adds $3 million to the $5 million contained in the Omnibus Agriculture bill to the Dairy Assistance Investment Relief Initiative (DAIRI). This federal program is designed to help protect Minnesota’s milk producers from dairy market volatility. DAIRI helps farmers obtain this federal insurance coverage.
Launch Minnesota: Launch Minnesota is an initiative from Gov. Walz that seeks to jumpstart emerging businesses and the innovation economy in Minnesota. This new program will promote entrepreneurs and emerging businesses in Minnesota (especially high-tech, start-up businesses) by supporting research and development, and helping start-up companies to provide employee benefits. The Jobs budget appropriates $5 million to get Launch Minnesota up-and-running.
Unclaimed Property: The final Jobs budget includes almost $2.4 million in new funding for the Unclaimed Property program at the Dept. of Commerce. Most of this new funding is for an IT upgrade and to hire additional staff to locate unclaimed property rightfully owned by Minnesotans.
Policy Provisions
Workforce Accountability: Both the House and Senate proposed measures that call on DEED to do an inventory of all of the workforce development programs it operates or funds (including grants to nonprofits). Reports to the Legislature must include information on program costs, the number of participants, and measures of program success. The final Jobs budget contains a hybrid approach that extends this requirement to economic development programs overseen by DEED, as well as workforce development programs. The first report is due Jan. 15, 2020.
Workers Comp: One article in the Jobs budget contains the recommendations of the
Workers Comp Advisory Council, including numerous changes in statute to reflect the new workers comp IT system (CAMPUS) at DOLI, which is expected to go live in August 2020.
Unemployment Insurance: Similarly, another five articles of the bill contain the recommendations from the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council. Most of these recommendations are technical, but they help to make our unemployment system function more efficiently.
Here are some of the measures that did not become law this year:
Paid Family and Medical Leave: House DFLers fought hard to ensure that working
Minnesotans would not be forced to choose between earning a paycheck and taking care of themselves or a family member with a serious medical condition. HF 5 sought to create a state program that would allow Minnesota workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave when they are pregnant, to bond with a new child, to obtain cancer treatment, to take care of a child with severe health problems, or to care for a dying parent in their final days. Republicans have said “no” so far, but we will continue to work to persuade them to support paid family and medical leave in 2020.
Earned Sick & Safe Time: This provision would require all employers in Minnesota to provide their workers with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work. Republicans again said “no,” but DFLers will continue to work to improve economic security for all Minnesotans.
Net Neutrality: This bill would prohibit Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from blocking or impeding access to internet content. Although it was included in the House Jobs bill, net neutrality did not make it to the final Jobs budget.
Payday Lending: HF 1501 would have capped the interest rate that payday lenders can charge at 36%. Although this bill was included in the House Jobs bill, and South Dakota has a similar law, the Senate GOP insisted that it be stripped out of the final Jobs bill.
As always, please contact me anytime with your input. I appreciate hearing from you! You can reach me at 651-296-4280 or rep.melissa.hortman@house.mn. You can also keep up with what’s happening at the Capitol by liking my legislative Facebook page. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Melissa Hortman
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