Dear Neighbor,
Child care, early learning scholarships and sick time for workers were among subjects that came to the forefront in the House this week. Here is more on those issues and more but, first, I’d like to thank the local residents who either met with me in St. Paul this week or have invited me to meet back in our area. My itinerary today includes constituent meetings, a tour of internet cable provider Midco and a meeting with officials and residents of Rockville regarding safety issues on Highway 24 and Interstate 94.
Physical therapy students were among this week’s office visitors (above), including constituent Gracen Eveslage, from Avon, and Samantha McClanahan. Thank you, Gracen and Samantha, for taking time to talk with me.
In other news:
CHILD CARE
The House approved legislation this week which provides funding for child care at a time our state is losing providers at an incredible rate. In particular, the bill increases the Child Care Assistance Program by more than $350 million in state general funds during the next two years.
The objective for CCAP is to help families obtain child care while parents are working or attending school. This program also has been plagued by large-scale fraud in recent years and a lack of measures in the bill to mitigate the misuse of these tax dollars is concerning.
For years, government reports have acknowledged the CCAP program was vulnerable for fraud. Allegations of $100 million in CCAP fraud arose in 2018, followed by the $250 million scam involving Feeding Our Future, which had overlaps into CCAP and other state-managed programs.
Unfortunately, as unbelievable as the theft of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars may be, we can only imagine the true scope of fraud is exponentially worse. The House minority offered reasonable amendments that would provide accountability and guardrails to ensure the money is going to help the families that truly need it. The realities of misuse are too obvious to continue ignoring, yet the majority blocked each of our attempts to improve the bill and left it vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse.
EARLY LEARNING/STABILIZATION GRANTS
The House majority this week approved a bill appropriating more than $52 million to early learning scholarships ($40 million) and the Child Care Stabilization Grant Program ($12.5 million).
Early learning scholarships are a good approach to child care/early education because they empower parents to make decisions they deem best for their families. That said, child care stabilization grants have their own fraud concerns. Child care centers closely linked to those indicted by federal authorities also received stabilization funding and centers facing license revocations are funded with these grants.
It’s another case where our mission should be to make sure the money taxpayers provide to care for the kids most in need reaches the kids most in need instead of writing blank checks.
Both bills had promise but were undermined by an unwillingness to get serious about eliminating waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars in these and other programs.
SICK TIME
Last night, the House majority passed a bill with sweeping changes to Minnesota’s current laws regarding employee leave.
There are numerous reasons for concern with this bill, specifically how new mandates will damage Minnesota’s job creators and Main Street businesses who are still recovering from COVID, while also facing ongoing inflation, supply chain issues and workforce shortages. This certainly will increase labor costs at a time our goal should be to avoid placing additional burdens and mandates on our job providers who are doing their best to keep their doors open and Minnesotans employed.
Furthermore, this bill does not include most of the employer protections under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, such as employers with less than 50 employees being exempt. This language applies to all Minnesota employers who employ one or more persons, a one-size-fits-all approach that could have damaging consequences.
As always, your input on these and other subjects is welcome. Please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Lisa