A Tough Session Comes to a Close

At about a quarter to eleven this morning, after a couple of all nighters and a short special session to finally balance the budget, the 2010 legislative session offically came to a close. This year was a tough year that started out with the unallotment of General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), Emergencey General Assistance (EGA), and the proposed elimination of General Assistance (GA), a huge budget deficit, and necessary social programs like child care assistance, education funding, and mental health services on the chopping block.

But as the dust clears, and the final budget proposal is sent to the Governor's desk to be signed, the work of faithful advocates around the state has payed off: most damaging proposals to low income Minnesotans did not succeed.

The budget the Legislature negotiated with the Governor includes (thanks Affirmative Options):

• No cuts to General Assistance – despite the Governor’s proposal to eliminate the assistance altogether;
• One cut to the Minnesota Family Investment Program – reducing a $50 a month bonus to $25 a month for families leaving assistance with a job;
• Funding for Emergency General Assistance was restored for 2011, but the Governor’s unallotment of that program for 2010 still stands.
• No cuts to the on-going funding for the funds that help low-wage working families pay for child care;
• An end to counting assets in determining whether a household is eligible for Food Stamps. To be eligible a household has to show income of less than 165% of the poverty line

On the GAMC front, we were able pass a solution that the Governor signed into law, but after the solution was not well received by the hospitals due to the greatly reduced amount of funding, legislators made a deal with four large metro hospitals (all in Hennepin and Ramsey County) in exchange for capping the number of patients to be served by the program.

The legislature did make some more money available for non-metro area hospitals to reimburse them for patients who come through their doors. The most significant development is that the current or next Governor has until Jan. 15th to decide whether to transfer adults from GAMC and MinnesotaCare to Medical Assistance. The transfer would earn Minnesota more than $1 billion in federal money, would cover nearly everyone currently covered by GAMC and would cover the whole state.

The Impartial Judiciary bill that JRLC and Minnesotans for Impartial Courts was working on, did not pass and was stalled in the Civil Justice Committee in the house, before it died. It had passed the whole Senate committee process and was teed up for passage on the Senate floor, but the Senate decided not to act since House movement never happened.

THANK YOU to all of our advocates who called legislators, rallied at the capitol, attended Day on the Hill, stood with us at a vigil, and wrote letters. Your work really paid off! We were able to defend programs that help the most vulnerable Minnesotans, and we made sure that our legislatures know that Minnesota is not the kind of state the balances the budget on the backs of the poor.

Stay tuned for a more comprehensive session summary, and check our our Facebook album of our favorite photos from the 2010 session!

Rachel Herzfeldt-Kamprath
Advocacy Associate