MN House budget targets state's lowest-income families for cuts...put your loved ones on the map! (Dent: sales, foreclosure)

[Camden Northsider]

I received this disheartening news from a local advocacy organization today:

"MN House of Representatives releases human services budget proposals: The House budget adopts the Governor’s cuts to MFIP


More than $22 million in budget cuts come from cuts to the poorest children in the state and their families. The MN House of Representatives released a health and human services budget proposal that adopts the Governor’s cuts for the Minnesota Family Investment Program:

• Cuts assistance to families with disabled parents or children in the household by $100 – pushing these families even further into deep poverty;
• Cuts assistance to families who are in public housing by $100 a month – forcing public housing to spend more on rent subsidies for those families are their incomes fall;
• Cut off assistance earlier to families who get jobs – so that earnings just 11% over poverty would disqualify families from any transitional income assistance, effectively ending Minnesota’s commitment to helping families move out of poverty as they leave welfare;
• Reduces a proposed monthly work bonus to $50 a month – leaving families only very meager help to close the gap between low wages and the cost of essential needs.
• Cutting the funds counties use to pay for employment counseling services and financial assistance workers by 5% at a time when caseloads are growing.

....as a whole these budget proposals not only leave poor children even poorer, but also threaten to lower the state’s work participation rate – risking losing some of the federal money Minnesota receives for its welfare to work, income tax credit and child care assistance programs.

The House budget proposals look better through a health care lens: the House would not adopt the Governor’s proposals to cut people off MinnesotaCare or General Assistance Medical Care. Nor would the House adopt the Governor’s proposals to reduce General Assistance Medical Care to a bare bones program that would cover only doctor’s visits – but provide no coverage for hospital care, replacement for artificial limbs or dental care.

Help legislators make connections to the effects of these cuts on people you know: Put them on the map
The health and human services budget is not about programs. It is not primarily about budget and caseloads numbers. It is about the people we care about: our families, our friends, our neighbors, people we work with and people who are members of our communities. Make sure legislators know that."

The last paragraph alludes to a new website that has been created to tell legislators the stories of families that depend on health and human services in Minnesota: www.aboutusall.org. If you want to tell the story of a family member, friend, loved one, neighbor, church member, or anyone else that will be hurt by these cuts, click on the map and make sure they are on it - help legislators to see beyond budget spread sheets to the children, their parents, and people you care about.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

I received this disheartening news from a local advocacy organization today:

"MN House of Representatives releases human services budget proposals: The House budget adopts the Governor’s cuts to MFIP


More than $22 million in budget cuts come from cuts to the poorest children in the state and their families. The MN House of Representatives released a health and human services budget proposal that adopts the Governor’s cuts for the Minnesota Family Investment Program:

• Cuts assistance to families with disabled parents or children in the household by $100 – pushing these families even further into deep poverty;
• Cuts assistance to families who are in public housing by $100 a month – forcing public housing to spend more on rent subsidies for those families are their incomes fall;
• Cut off assistance earlier to families who get jobs – so that earnings just 11% over poverty would disqualify families from any transitional income assistance, effectively ending Minnesota’s commitment to helping families move out of poverty as they leave welfare;
• Reduces a proposed monthly work bonus to $50 a month – leaving families only very meager help to close the gap between low wages and the cost of essential needs.
• Cutting the funds counties use to pay for employment counseling services and financial assistance workers by 5% at a time when caseloads are growing.

....as a whole these budget proposals not only leave poor children even poorer, but also threaten to lower the state’s work participation rate – risking losing some of the federal money Minnesota receives for its welfare to work, income tax credit and child care assistance programs.

The House budget proposals look better through a health care lens: the House would not adopt the Governor’s proposals to cut people off MinnesotaCare or General Assistance Medical Care. Nor would the House adopt the Governor’s proposals to reduce General Assistance Medical Care to a bare bones program that would cover only doctor’s visits – but provide no coverage for hospital care, replacement for artificial limbs or dental care.


Help legislators make connections to the effects of these cuts on people you know: Put them on the map
The health and human services budget is not about programs. It is not primarily about budget and caseloads numbers. It is about the people we care about: our families, our friends, our neighbors, people we work with and people who are members of our communities. Make sure legislators know that."

The last paragraph alludes to a new website that has been created to tell legislators the stories of families that depend on health and human services in Minnesota: www.aboutusall.org. If you want to tell the story of a family member, friend, loved one, neighbor, church member, or anyone else that will hurt by these cuts- click on the map and make sure the people you care about are on it - help legislators to see beyond budget spread sheets to the children, their parents, and the people you care about.

This is very crazy. The way Minnesota was doing things before was keeping things stable compared to many states. I hope the crime rate doesn't go out of control, though chances are this could happen. If people are desperate and can't find a way to survive, some might turn to crime. No excuse for crime, but when stuff like this happens, it is scary to think what could happen. Governor Pawlenty needs to go.

[Slig]

It sucks but the massive budget cuts have to happen when sales tax and property tax are seeing huge losses due to bad consumer confidence and the foreclosure crisis. I heard on MPR yesterday that the Minnesota DFL'ers are moving to increase taxes to households making 250k and up to try and close the gap but it will still put the state a couple billion over budget.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by Slig

It sucks but the massive budget cuts have to happen when sales tax and property tax are seeing huge losses due to bad consumer confidence and the foreclosure crisis. I heard on MPR yesterday that the Minnesota DFL'ers are moving to increase taxes to households making 250k and up to try and close the gap but it will still put the state a couple billion over budget.

I heard on MPR that the state senate is proposing to raise income tax on all income brackets, not just the higher brackets. The following link provides more detail.

Minnesota Senate Democrats propose higher income taxes - TwinCities.com

[golfgal]

And they are proposing to eliminate most tax deductions so not only are you in a higher bracket, you lose your deductions, thus paying in quite a bit more. I don't know what deductions they are talking about but for us that would DOUBLE our taxes that we pay in if they eliminate them all except for dependent tax credits/deductions.

[pirate_lafitte]

How do you think Minnesota will fare from this?

[Norsky1]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

How do you think Minnesota will fare from this?

Not very well. I don't think it will pass anyhow.. Well hopefully not.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by golfgal

And they are proposing to eliminate most tax deductions so not only are you in a higher bracket, you lose your deductions, thus paying in quite a bit more. I don't know what deductions they are talking about but for us that would DOUBLE our taxes that we pay in if they eliminate them all except for dependent tax credits/deductions.

Say you have an a nicer suburban home. YOu pay $5000 in property tax, and $15000 in mortgage interest. This new bill takes away a $20,000 tax deduction and replaces it with a capped credit of $450.

7.7 percent of 20K is $1440. Subtract the new credit and what you get is a a $1000 increase in state income tax on your average professional family. Add in another $500 or so for the increased rate and the state just took over $100 a month a large number of families.

I would not say this is close to doubling tax, but 15-25% is probably accurate.

Straight up what bothers me is the deception and rhetoric. We keep hearing about how we need to raise taxes on the rich, then they stick to the middle class, and stiff the lower class too.

These clowns really need to understand that $100 to $300 a month in loan payments due to increase interest rates on arms chrushed the housing market. This tax proposal could potentially devestate the housing market again.

Here is the real deal. Raising taxes on the rich sounds great, but over 90% of the families in this state don't fall into that category. The thought that less than 10% of the families can close a 2 billion dollar shortfall is just plan ignorant or decpetive.

I really hope the press wakes the hell up and takes our elected officials to task on this one. Tax hikes like this will cause our most outstanding citizens to think about moving somewhere else

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by golfgal

And they are proposing to eliminate most tax deductions so not only are you in a higher bracket, you lose your deductions, thus paying in quite a bit more. I don't know what deductions they are talking about but for us that would DOUBLE our taxes that we pay in if they eliminate them all except for dependent tax credits/deductions.

Say you have an a nicer suburban home. YOu pay $5000 in property tax, and $15000 in mortgage interest. This new bill takes away a $20,000 tax deduction and replaces it with a capped credit of $450.

7.7 percent of 20K is $1440. Subtract the new credit and what you get is a a $1000 increase in state income tax on your average professional family. Add in another $500 or so for the increased rate and the state just took over $100 a month a large number of families.

I would not say this is close to doubling tax, but 15-25% is probably accurate.

Straight up what bothers me is the deception and rhetoric. We keep hearing about how we need to raise taxes on the rich, then they stick to the middle class, and stiff the lower class too.

These clowns really need to understand that $100 to $300 a month increase in loan payments due to increase interest rates on arms chrushed the housing market. This tax proposal could potentially devestate the housing market again.

Here is the real deal. Raising taxes on the rich sounds great, but over 90% of the families in this state don't fall into that category. The thought that less than 10% of the families can close a 2 billion dollar shortfall is just plan ignorant or decpetive.

I really hope the press wakes the hell up and takes our elected officials to task on this one. Tax hikes like this will cause our most outstanding citizens to think about moving somewhere else. We already make it hard to compete for new business.

This is turning into a clinic on how to flush our economic health down the toilet.

Here is where we need to start. The gap amounts to $400 for every man woman and child in the state for the 2 year budge or $200 a year. Find a way to reduce spending in a more meaniful way. I am not suggesting we cut all the programs that our most needing people depend on either. There is plenty of pork to cut without touching that.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by Clifford63

Here is where we need to start. The gap amounts to $400 for every man woman and child in the state for the 2 year budge or $200 a year. Find a way to reduce spending in a more meaniful way. I am not suggesting we cut all the programs that our most needing people depend on either. There is plenty of pork to cut without touching that.

I agree with this last statement Clifford- one of my agency's govt funders recently issued one of our programs a 6 figure cut; meanwhile they're hiring ANOTHER staff when most people think they already have too many overpaid people without enough to do in that office. It's been fairly proven that private nonprofits do a much better and much more efficient job in delivering human/ social services than the government itself- I say cut government positions and increase funding to competitively contract with nonprofits to deliver services to the people of this state- but again I'm a biased opinion, and I think the microscope/ hatchet has already focused way too much on the arena of health and human services itself (hence this thread) when there are so many other areas of state spending that need the same if not a higher level of scrutiny.

In regards to my original post, an update from the same local organization:

The Minnesota House of Representatives will be voting Monday whether to back a budget bill that adopts the Governor’s cuts to the state’s poorest children and their families. Contact your state representative before Saturday to say:

“Minnesota’s children deserve better: Do not support the cuts to the Minnesota Family Investment Program in the Health and Human Services bill.”

It is easy to find out who represents you in the House of Representatives and to get her or his contact information:
Just go to http://www.gis.leg.mn/mapserver/districts. (There is no need to contact your state senator right now.) You can send an e-mail or make a phone call. (If you call, you are likely to get voice mail or a staff person – so be prepared to leave a short, clear message.)





Background on the cuts to MFIP:

• The most common reason a parent applies for cash assistance in Minnesota is because she has just lost a job. The state forecast expects the number of families needing this assistance to grow by 16% in the next two years because of the growing loss of jobs in the state. Now is the wrong time to cut that assistance back.

And for the folks that think families on welfare are living leisurely lifestyles, refer to some of my older posts on this topic- there has been no other social welfare program in history that holds people's feet to the fire like TANF/ MFIP programs. And I've known people who have worked in this field for many years who have said that in all the time they have been in the industry there has never been an increase in the amount of money Minnesotans are eligible to receive on welfare.

Another big concern, however, is that the above decisions could put our state at risk for losing a significant amount of federal funding. If our state's "work participation rate" for families receiving welfare goes down in performance (cutting employment services and financial workers more than they have already been cut will undoubtedly ensure this), MN will lose a lot of federal $$ that support these programs.

Minnesota legislators need to quit wagging the dog with these budget decisions.