Dear Neighbors, The main news to update you on is yesterday’s announcement that Governor Walz and legislative leaders reached a deal on our state budget. This deal mostly sets the financial framework, guidelines for legislators to know how much can be invested or reduced in funding for each budget area. In addition to these guidelines, leaders also reached several crucial policy agreements, namely on issues where Republicans were attempting to repeal or roll back the hard-fought progress we’ve made these last few years to make our community and state a place where Minnesotans can thrive. I’m proud to say we protected Universal School Meals, reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention measures, clean energy goals, Unemployment Insurance for hourly school workers, Earned Sick & Safe Time, and Paid Family & Medical Leave, just to name a few. However, Republicans dug in and held the state budget hostage unless their demand to strip healthcare access from our undocumented neighbors was met. They would risk a government shutdown, along with all the services Minnesotans rely on, just to make life more difficult and deadly for some of our neighbors. The compromise reached by legislative leaders would strip MinnesotaCare, a health care program for Minnesotans with low incomes, from undocumented adults, leaving children still eligible. With a tied House and a 1-vote DFL majority in the Senate, we always knew hard choices and compromises were going to be a part of this legislative session, but I will not vote to strip healthcare away from anyone. That’s not what our community elected me to do. |