State employees to lawmakers: You got your raises, now approve ours

February 20, 2018 by

MAPE members led a rally on the Capitol steps on Day 1 of the 2018 legislative session.

State workers rolled out the welcome mat for lawmakers returning to St. Paul today, four months after a legislative subcommittee pulled the rug out from under their collective bargaining process.

Hundreds of state workers, members of AFSCME and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, rallied on the Capitol steps over the noon hour. Union members called on lawmakers to approve their contracts, and to quit treating state employees like a political football.

“It’s disheartening and discouraging to feel like the Legislature doesn’t value the work we do,” said MAPE member Angie Arnold, a grant officer at Normandale Community College.

The two unions, which represent about 29,000 state employees, reached tentative agreements on 2017-19 contracts with the state last summer, and members voted overwhelmingly to approve the pacts in August. They include annual wage increases of 2 and 2.25 percent, raises that are fully funded by the state’s budget and smaller than those in state workers’ previous contracts.

The raises are considerably smaller, too, than the 45 percent pay increase lawmakers are pocketing this year. In fact, one of the Republican subcommittee members who joined a party-line vote to reject the contracts last fall sued the state to make sure she got a pay hike of her own.

“That raises my blood pressure,” said Nikki Engen, a MAPE member from Ely who works as a collections officer for the Department of Revenue.

 

MAPE member Nikki Engen of Ely calls on lawmakers to pass state employees’ union contracts.
Angie Arnold, a grant officer at Normandale Community College, called the contract delay “disheartening and discouraging.”
“If lawmakers want us to do our jobs, they should let us know they really appreciate us,” said Sarah Bistodeau, a member of MAPE Local 902 who works in the state’s infectious disease lab.

Calling for fiscal responsibility while pocketing your own big raise is textbook hypocrisy, Engen added, noting that state employees agreed to a pay freeze during the state’s budget crisis a decade ago.

“My house payment doesn’t make itself. My daughter’s dance tuition doesn’t pay itself,” she said. “Costs go up, and we remain the same.”

MAPE and AFSCME members continue to work under the terms of their previous contracts, which expired June 20. Union leaders say they have no plans to return to the bargaining table and renegotiate the tentative agreements.

“There’s no reason not to approve this contract,” Arnold said. “We bargained with the governor’s team in good faith. This is what we get when we follow the rules and do the process the way it’s supposed to be done?”

Many at the rally worried that delaying state employees’ wage increases – and putting them in the middle of a political fight – would make it harder for the state to recruit qualified applicants to fill job openings.

Rep. Deb Hillstrom, a DFLer from Brooklyn Center, noted that wages in the private sector increased more, on average, than the raises negotiated by state employees. Private-sector wages increased 3.1 percent last year, and the increase is expected to be even greater in 2018.

“You are the people that make Minnesota work and that make Minnesota great,” Hillstrom told rallying workers. “You deserve better.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Workers, parents show unity with St. Paul teachers after strike vote

February 1, 2018 by

A solidarity rally outside the SPFT strike vote drew parents and supporters from other unions. (photo credit: MN Workers United)

Members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers yesterday delivered a powerful message of unity in their drive for a contract that delivers the fully funded, racially equitable schools St. Paul students deserve.

Parents and working people in the district, meanwhile, delivered a message of their own: It’s time for the school district to start listening to educators.

Several unions representing thousands of working people in St. Paul offered up statements of solidarity with SPFT members.

They included Teamsters Local 320, which represents more than 100 Nutrition Services workers in the St. Paul Public Schools. In a letter to the school board and administrators, Secretary-Treasurer Brian Aldes noted that teachers stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Local 320 member fighting for a $15 wage floor last fall.

“It’s time for the District to support its employees and drop the adversarial approach to negotiations,” Aldes wrote. “If the St. Paul Teachers go on strike against the District, please know that they will have the full support of Teamsters Local 320 and its 11,500 strong membership.”

Presidents of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, the Minnesota Nurses Association and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees weighed in with letters to the district as well. Together, the labor groups represent more than 80,000 union members.

“These are moments when leaders need to step up and lead,” MNA President Mary Turner wrote. “And I am urging you to do just that.”

Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member St. Paul RLF, called the district’s approach to negotiations “incredibly disappointing.”

“Our schools work best when educators are valued and their concerns are heard,” Kasper wrote. “Today’s strike vote is a clear indication that isn’t happening… We hope today’s vote serves as a wake-up call to district leaders that it’s time to get serious about negotiations.”

SPFT held its strike-authorization vote at a downtown hotel yesterday, drawing participation from about two-thirds of it 3,700 members. The union represents three bargaining units in negotiations: community service professionals, educational assistants and teachers and licensed staff. All three overwhelmingly backed strike authorization, with over 80 percent support.

The union planned to file notice of members’ intent to strike today, and a work stoppage could begin as early as mid-February.

The two sides have scheduled a return to mediated talks tomorrow. Teachers said they will continue to push for smaller class sizes, restorative practices, support for English language learners, more nurses and librarians and other measures aimed at improving student outcomes and tackling racial disparities.

Support for language programs is among SPFT’s core bargaining proposals.

“Our members are ready to tackle the racial disparities that exist in our schools and in our community, but they need the resources in order to get that done,” SPFT President Nick Faber told hundreds of people gathered for a rally downtown St. Paul Monday. “But our district has refused to talk to us about many of these issues.”

Teachers also aren’t giving up on efforts to build new partnerships with corporations like Ecolab and U.S. Bank that avoid paying property taxes in St. Paul, as well as large nonprofits like Allina Health and Macalester that benefit from property-tax exemptions.

Parents like Kirinda Anderson, whose daughter attends Wellstone Elementary, want the district to team up with teachers and get serious about holding corporate tax-dodgers accountable for draining resources from public schools.

“Instead of going to our schools, our money is going to tax breaks for companies like Ecolab and U.S. Bank,” Anderson said at Monday’s rally. “When they don’t pay their fair share of taxes, they’re depriving our children – kids like my daughter – the education that all children need to be successful… I’m going to call it what it is, and that’s systemic racism.”

“Nobody wants a strike,” Faber added. “None of our members wants to walk away from our students, but sometimes it is the only way workers have to get management to listen.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friends’ labor history series looks back on ‘World in Turmoil’

April 24, 2017 by

May is labor history month, and for the last 18 years, the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library have marked the occasion with a series of labor-related programs in the city’s libraries and union halls.

The award-winning “Untold Stories” series will continue this May, with an appropriately severe theme for the dawn of the Trump era: “A World in Turmoil: 1917-2017.” All programs are free and open to the public.

• Workers’ Memorial Event, April 26, 7 p.m., St. Paul Labor Center, 353 W. 7th St. Panelists will explore workplace safety issues in advance of the national commemoration, held April 28. They include labor historian John Sielaff; workers’ comp attorney Mike Scully; and Phil Qualy, director of the UTU Minnesota Legislative Board.

• David Noble Lecture with Roderick Ferguson, May 2, 7 p.m., Cowles Auditorium, 301 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis. Presented by the University of Minnesota Department of American Studies, the annual lecture honors a groundbreaking professor in the field whose work offers fresh perspectives on our history and culture. Ferguson, a faculty member at the University of Illinois, will present “The Bookshop of Black Queer Diaspora.”

• 1917 – A Look Back, May 3, 7 p.m., Rice Street Library, 1011 Rice St. Panelists will travel back in time to 1917 for a look at politics and labor, from the nonpartisan league and the women’s suffrage movement to the Twin Cities streetcar strike.

• Nativism and Resistance – Then and Now, May 9, 7 p.m., East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St. Freedom Library co-director Peter Rachleff will discuss how business and political leaders promoted nativism in World War I-era Minnesota as a means to squelch the labor movement and its farmer allies, followed by a conversation about the re-emergence of anti-immigrant fears today.

• “Racism in our Hometown,” May 15, 7 p.m., ESFL, 1105 Greenbrier St. Presented by the APWU Solidarity Kids Theater, this multi-media puppet show introduces the family of Arthur and Edith Lee, who moved into an all-white neighborhood in 1931. Arthur’s union coworkers at the Minneapolis Post Office, most of whom were white, protected his family when police failed to stop racist mobs trying to force him from his home.

• 100 Years at the Library, May 16, 7 p.m., St. Anthony Park Library, 2245 Como Ave. Speakers will describe the St. Paul Public Library as it appeared 100 years ago, from one of four Carnegie libraries in the city celebrating a centennial.

• Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids, May 16, 6 p.m., Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 N. Dale St. Professors William Jones, Yuichiro Onishi and James Robinson will paint a portrait of the early history of the Brotherhood, from the participation of A. Philip Randolph to the Brotherhood’s presence in St. Paul.

• Payne Avenue Walking Tour and Library Celebration, May 21, 10:30 a.m., Arlington Hills Community Center, 1200 Payne Ave. Rachleff will lead a tour of the East Side artery, ending the walk at another library celebrating its centennial. Space is limited; reservations are required at sppl.org/storyfair.

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Friedrichs is history (maybe), but Minnesota workers aren’t letting their guard down

May 3, 2016 by
Workday Minnesota Editor Barb Kucera (L) moderated a panel discussion with public-sector union leaders, including (L to R) Debbie Prokopf of MAPE, Tee McClenty of MSEA and Denise Specht of Education MN.

Workday Minnesota Editor Barb Kucera (L) moderated a discussion with public-sector union leaders (L to R) Debbie Prokopf of MAPE, Tee McClenty of MSEA and Denise Specht of Education MN.

 

Labor History Month kicked off in St. Paul last night with a discussion of history in the making, as panelists offered insight into public-sector workers’ recent push to breath new life into their unions and defend their right to a voice on the job.

The public forum, titled “The Friedrichs Case and the Future of the Labor Movement,” opened Untold Stories, the labor-history series staged annually in May by The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, with support from a number of unions.

[Programming continues tomorrow with an author talk at the Merriam Park Library. Click here to view details and a full lineup of events.]

At last night’s forum, held at the new St. Paul Labor Center, leaders of three Minnesota unions that represent public-sector workers reviewed recent legal and legislative challenges to their organizing rights – and talked about the ways their organizations are responding.

Debbie Prokopf, attorney and business agent for the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, said corporate-backed politicians and anti-worker legal funds seemingly come up with new ways to “chip away” at public-service workers’ rights every day.

“They’re trying all these wacky, right-wing theories to see what sticks,” Prokopf said, pointing to measures that would require unions to hold recertification votes every year and to negotiate in public, or would severely limit the scope of their contract talks.

Such attacks never gained traction in Minnesota, and that allowed many public-sector unions to “become very complacent,” Education Minnesota President Denise Specht acknowledged. “With our state’s strong labor laws, we’ve taken a lot for granted.”

Two developments woke Minnesota’s public-sector unions out of that slumber.

First, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, after making scapegoats of teachers and other public workers on the campaign trail, signed legislation designed to cripple their collective bargaining power. And working people in this neighboring state took notice.

The first Untold Stories event of 2016 took place in the new St. Paul Labor Center, at 353 W. 7th St.

The first Untold Stories event of 2016 took place in the new St. Paul Labor Center, at 353 W. 7th St.

“When unions aren’t able to do their work, then we get Wisconsin,” Specht said. “They’re kind of the poster child now – but not in a good way – and that’s helped us in getting our members to realize what’s at stake.”

The U.S. Supreme Court raised those stakes even higher last year when it agreed to hear Friedrichs v. CTA. The case challenged public-sector unions’ ability to collect fair-share fees from workers they represent, and during oral arguments in January, the court’s conservative majority appeared poised to issue a ruling that would make “Right to Work” the law of the land in the public sector.

‘Don’t wast a good crisis’

The writing, it seemed, was on the wall, and public-sector unions last year began scrambling to convert as many “fair-share fee-payers” into full union members as they could before the court issued its ruling.

The Minnesota School Employees Association, which represents 6,000 workers in more than 60 school districts statewide, set a course for signing up 5 percent of its fee-payers.

Executive Director Tee McClenty said the union surveyed fair-share fee-payers and found many had no idea they weren’t paying full dues. MSEA trained stewards, rank-and-file members and staff for one-on-one conversations about fee-payers’ issues and concerns. And within 11 months, the union had reached its goal.

MAPE and Education Minnesota, as well as unions like AFSCME and SEIU, rolled out similar internal-organizing initiatives, with similarly successful results.

“They say don’t waste a good crisis,” Prokopf said. “And I think Friedrichs was a very good crisis for us in that it shook us out of our complacency.”

Bullet or boomerang?

Ironically, the doomsday ruling anticipated in the Friedrichs case never came. After conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died, the court issued a 4-4 decision upholding the status quo.

Will public-sector unions in Minnesota let down their guard again? Not likely, panelists said.

“We didn’t dodge a bullet; we dodged a boomerang,” Prokopf said of Friedrichs, noting that plaintiffs in the case already have filed for a second hearing before the court. “It’s coming back.”

McClenty said MSEA’s annual delegate assembly last month included a training session on Friedrichs.

“People were like, ‘What? We’re done with this now,’” McClenty said. “But we can’t get too comfortable. We feel like there’s momentum happening at MSEA, and we want to keep it going.”

Even if a pro-worker justice replaces Scalia, attacks on public-sector workers at the legislative level – including a “poison pill” attachment to the bill approving state workers’ contracts this session – aren’t likely to stop anytime soon.

“We’re not going to let up,” Specht said. “This is the labor movement at stake. We’re all depending on each other to be strong. We’re going all in, and we’re not stopping.”

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Drazkowski threatens to derail state contracts with Right to Work ‘poison pill’

April 1, 2016 by
Union members packed the room during a House committee hearing on Right to Work for state employees.

Union members packed the room during a House committee hearing on Right to Work for state employees.

 

It’s fair to say state Rep. Steve Drazkowski has a reputation for advancing extreme ideas. He’s supported logging in Minnesota’s state parks and eliminating the Pay Equity Act, even floated the idea of replacing health care workers with baby monitors.

The Mazeppa Republican is at it again this session, inserting Wisconsin-style Right to Work language into a routine bill to approve new union contracts covering about 30,000 state workers.

The bill, House File 3585, received a hearing before a House committee on government operations yesterday. Union members from both the public and private sector packed the room, showing lawmakers a united front against any attempt to roll back workers’ rights.

“Rep. Drazkowski, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is attempting to tear down working people and their aspirations for a better life,” Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5, warned lawmakers in testimony before the committee.

Drazkowski’s bill threatens to derail approval of collective bargaining agreements negotiated last year with four state-employee groups: AFSCME (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, the Minnesota Nurses Association and the Middle Management Association.

Taken on their own, the contracts are not particularly controversial. Most workers will see annual wage increases of 2.5 percent while taking on a greater share of their health insurance costs.

But Drazkowski has attached several “poison pills” to the contacts, including language that would bar unions from charging “fair share fees” to cover the cost of representing state workers who choose not to become members. Such fees were ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court Monday.

Drazkowski also would require the state to negotiate union contracts in public, make it illegal for state employees to bargain for retroactive wage increases and restrict union members who work for the state from participating in political activities during unpaid time off.

As Seide and others pointed out to lawmakers, the bill mirrors many of the so-called “reforms” Walker took up in his first days as governor of Wisconsin six years ago. Since then, Wisconsin has struggled with state budget deficits, a sluggish economy, teacher shortages and corruption charges – issues that undermined the governor’s short-lived presidential campaign.

In addition to being bad public policy, Drazkowski’s poison-pill proposals are offensive to the people who work in public service, Leanne Kunze, assistant director of AFSCME Council 65, said.

“This unfair, unsafe and unnecessary legislation hurts workers, their families and our communities,” Kunze said. “Just look at our neighbors to the east to see the devastating ripple effect of unnecessary and unwarranted changes to longstanding collective bargaining history.”

DFL lawmakers on the committee, including Rep. Laurie Halverson of Eagan, worried that drastic changes in the state’s approach to dealing with its employees – especially changes designed to weaken their voice on the job – might disrupt labor peace.

“Anyone around this table who’s an employer knows they’re going to do better if their employees are happy and doing well,” Halverson said.

“I don’t understand what problem is looking for the solution that Rep. Drazkowski is trying to impose here,” Seide added. “Public-service workers work 24 hours a day, seven days a week for their state. They never quit. They ought not be constantly under attack and denigrated … as if they’re some kind of foreign enemy.”

Lawmakers took no action on Drazkowski’s bill yesterday, but it will be back on the agenda when the committee meets again next week.

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Lawmakers split over state employees’ contracts, set to take effect next month

October 30, 2015 by

Project1_Layout 1Contracts covering about 27,500 state employees, including members of AFSCME Council 5 and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, will go into effect next month after a legislative subcommittee failed to reject or approve the agreements.

Members of the Subcommittee on Employee Relations split along party lines in a 5-5 vote yesterday. Under state law, the tie results in contracts taking effect 30 days after the vote.

The full Legislature must give the contracts final approval during the 2016 session, scheduled to begin March 8; otherwise state employees revert back to the terms of their 2013-15 contracts and resume negotiations with the state.

DFLers on the subcommittee, which included senators and members of the House, voted to approve the contracts; Republicans voted to reject them.

“It’s unfortunate that Republicans don’t recognize the value of hardworking state employees and the value of collective bargaining as an extension of democracy into the workplace,” AFSCME Council 5 Director Eliot Seide said. “Minnesota’s state workforce is one of the leanest and most productive in the nation. Our contracts were negotiated in good faith with the administration. It’s a good deal for state employees and taxpayers.”

The agreements call for annual raises of 2.5 percent, but will require workers to cover a larger portion of their health care costs – an increase more than offset by the wage and step increases, according to the unions.

By overwhelming margins, AFSCME and MAPE members voted to ratify the two-year contracts in August.

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

In contract talks, state workers beat back health care concessions, win raises

July 7, 2015 by

Project1_Layout 1After reaching a tentative agreement with the state July 1, members of two public-employee unions are set to vote this month on a two-year contract that includes annual raises of 2.5 percent.

Bargaining teams from both Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees recommended members vote “yes” to ratify the 2015-17 contract, according to articles published on the unions’ websites.

Wage increases included in the tentative agreement would offset an increase in employees’ share of health care costs – though not nearly as steep as the increase sought by state negotiators.

AFSCME and MAPE said their bargaining teams beat back $74 million in proposed takebacks, including a proposal to increase employees’ health insurance premiums. Instead, state workers would see a modest increase in out-of-pocket costs like co-pays and deductibles under the proposed contract.

“Even though the tentative agreement does increase health care costs in a few areas, the contract’s pay increases more than offset those costs,” AFSCME Council 5’s statement said. “Even members who pay the maximum out-of-pocket insurance costs will come out ahead by the end of the proposed contract.”

MAPE said state negotiators’ opening offer included raises of just 1 percent annually. “MAPE negotiators battled back, unwilling to accept any pay increase that would not more than offset the increases being proposed to the health care plan,” the union said.

“The governor’s team dropped their most onerous health care proposals after hearing from seven MAPE and AFSCME members who shared their personal stories with Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans… Each member spoke of how detrimental any serious increases to out-of-pockets or premiums would be for them and their families.”

The tentative agreement also includes a compromise regarding the unions’ proposal to expand paid family leave. If approved, the state would “establish a task force to assess opportunities for paid parental leave for all employees of the State of Minnesota,” according to MAPE.

In addition to wages and benefits, the tentative agreement includes several language changes suggested by union members, AFSCME said.

The contract covers nearly 17,500 AFSCME members and 13,000 MAPE members employed by the State of Minnesota.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Loaned executives look to grow labor’s support of United Way

August 13, 2013 by
Sheila Pokorny (left) and Joan Killeen are loaned labor executives for the 2013 Greater Twin Cities United Way campaign.

Sheila Pokorny (left) and Joan Killeen are loaned labor executives for the 2013 Greater Twin Cities United Way campaign.

United Way was there to support Sheila Pokorny and Joan Killeen when they needed a helping hand. Now the two are returning the favor as loaned labor executives supporting Greater Twin Cities United Way’s 2013 campaign.

Pokorny and Killeen began work July 25 and will continue through mid-November, reaching out to area union offices and encouraging officers, employees and members to give, advocate or volunteer in support of United Way’s work in the Twin Cities.

“Both of us have used United Way’s services, and it’s time to give back,” Pokorny said. “This is a personal connection for both of us.”

A former state employee and AFSCME member, Pokorny took advantage of St. Paul’s Neighborhood House as a young mother. Killeen, who worked 32 years for Ford Motor Company, benefited from a Salvation Army food shelf in her early years on the job.

Both women have long been supporters of United Way. Pokorny served as a campaign ambassador for 17 years while on staff at the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.

Killeen worked as a loaned labor executive on the 1997 campaign and served on the United Way committee at the Ford plant for several years. “I wanted to come back out of retirement and do some meaningful work,” said Killeen, who maintains a retiree membership in the United Auto Workers.

The primary mission of Greater Twin Cities United Way is to create pathways out of poverty, making the non-profit organization a natural ally of the labor movement. In fact, unions and United Way share a long history of working together to benefit communities nationwide.

United Way funds Community Services programs and staff in central labor bodies in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth and Stillwater. (Pokorny serves on the St. Paul RLF’s Labor Studies and Resource Center, which directs the Community Services program’s work.) Community Services liaisons help union members facing hardships access services they otherwise may not know about.

That’s why both the St. Paul and Minneapolis regional labor federations sponsor Greater Twin Cities United Way’s annual campaign – and urge their affiliates to do the same.

Greater Twin Cities United Way supports 322 programs at 175 non-profit organizations across its nine-county service area, focusing its work on three areas of need: stabilizing families, helping children succeed and empowering healthy lives. It also provides referrals and information by phone via its 2-1-1 helpline.

“We help stabilize families with job training and by using tax credits to increase earnings for over 11,000 people last year,” Killeen said.

Pokorny and Killeen succeed longtime Twin Cities loaned labor executive Mary Ystesund, who retired after the 2012 United Way campaign.

To support the Greater Twin Cities United Way’s work – or to get a United Way campaign started at your workplace – contact Lynne Larkin-Wright or Vicki Beebe, Community Services liaisons for the St. Paul RLF, at 651-222-3787.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there and maybe starting more local union staff campaigns and participating in all the existing fundraising activities out there with local unions,” Pokorny said.

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State employees vote to ratify new contract

August 12, 2013 by

AFSCMECouncil5Unions representing state employees announced today that their members have voted to ratify new, two-year contracts with the state. The contracts call for across-the-board raises of 3-percent in each of the next two years, but require state workers to pay more for their health insurance.

MAPE LOGOThe contracts cover 19,000 members of Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and 13,000 members of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees.

“Bargaining involves give and take between labor and management,” said Jo Pels, chief negotiator for AFSCME Council 5. “The employer didn’t get everything it wanted – and the union didn’t get everything we wanted. This is a fair agreement for hardworking state employees and the citizens of Minnesota.”

“We believe we negotiated a fair contract – and are delighted to see that our membership agreed with us,” said Mike Landers, co-chair of MAPE’s negotiations team.

Union negotiating teams bargained the new contracts with members of Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration, but the agreements must gain final approval from the Legislature before going into effect. The Subcommittee on Employee Relations (SER) has 30 days to take action regarding the contract before it goes into effect.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , ,

Unions: Dayton’s State of the State provides roadmap to a better Minnesota

February 7, 2013 by

capitolMinnesota Gov. Mark Dayton’s State of the State address last night drew glowing praise from the state’s union leaders, who applauded the DFL governor for his honesty, vision and commitment to middle class families.

“In his address, Gov. Dayton rolled out a strong, reasonable path to a better Minnesota, a brighter future for our state,” said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, which represents more than 12,000 state workers. “Minnesotans finally have a governor who is willing to take the bold steps needed to achieve tax fairness, invest in education and strengthen the middle class in this state.”

Addressing a joint session of the House and Senate, Dayton reiterated his support for a balanced budget that mixes spending cuts with strategic investments in education, infrastructure and vital services to bridge a projected $1.1 billion shortfall over the next biennium – and pay back the $1.1 billion borrowed from public school districts to balance the current budget.

Dayton also called on legislators to pass a tax reform bill that restores fairness and balance to the system, while protecting the middle class. He pointed to a recent analysis by the think tank Minnesota 2020 showing “middle-class Minnesotans pay 26 percent more state and local taxes per dollar of income than do the top one percent of our state’s income earners.”

“Making taxes fairer requires asking more of those citizens and corporations who now pay less than their proportionate share,” Dayton said. “Today, more and more hard-working, middle-class Minnesotans believe that the state’s tax structure is unfair to them. And they’re right.”

Shar Knutson, president of the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, called Dayton’s honest approach to solving the projected budget shortfall refreshing, particularly after “a decade of billions in cuts to education, health care and vital state services, tax giveaways to big corporations and the rich, and budget gimmicks” at the Capitol.

Eliot Seide, executive director of the 43,000-member AFSCME Council 5, said Dayton is “honest about what he wants to buy with his budget, and he’s courageous about how he wants to pay for it.

“No more kicking the deficit down the road,” Seide added. “No more gimmicks and games that pass the buck to future generations.”

The question now is whether legislators will follow the governor’s lead. The answer likely won’t come until after the state releases its next economic forecast Feb. 28.

“Legislators have important choices to make that will impact all Minnesotans,” Knutson said. “Gov. Dayton has provided them a roadmap that leads to a better Minnesota.”

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,
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