In the News
Advocates push to close corporate tax loopholes in Minnesota
Advocates are pressing Minnesota legislators to close tax loopholes and prevent companies from shifting income to offshore subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes.
TakeAction Minnesota says that companies are avoiding paying millions in taxes, which either results in service reductions around the state or higher taxes for all Minnesotans.
“Minnesota families cannot continue to pay for corporate tax avoidance,” said Greta Bergstrom, spokeswoman for Take Action Minnesota, an advocacy group.
Legislators are exploring a proposal to close some tax loopholes, which would bring in an additional $36.5 million over the next two years. If legislators closed all tax loopholes, the state could potentially take in an additional $350 million.
Complaint alleges unfair hiring practices at Target Corporation
Instead of employing capable and qualified workers, many claim the Target Corporation would rather employ unfair hiring practices that disproportionately exclude African-Americans.
Ten African-American Minnesotans filed formal complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claiming they were wrongfully denied employment based on their past run-ins with the criminal justice system. In a press conference held outside of the Hennepin County Government Center, members of TakeAction Minnesota, the St. Paul branch of the NAACP and a woman who said her offer for employment was rescinded by Target once a misdemeanor conviction came to light, called on the retail giant to end its practice of using past criminal transgressions to deny employment. The group said they have learned of 150 applicants who were denied employment based on past criminal transgressions.
The group said Target is unnecessarily discriminating against applicants of color who have criminal records in their past, but who are presently qualified for the jobs for which they are applying.
Health exchange incentive for insurers added to Minnesota House bill (w/ live video)
After a more than $100 million investment to create a Minnesota health insurance exchange, a leading proponent worries insurers will snub it.
The success of health exchanges relies on having good choices for consumers, but state Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, said he’s nervous the selection will be lacking if too many insurers stay away.
“If nobody is coming in and shopping in our market because there just aren’t really any products in there to begin with — that’s my biggest fear,” Atkins said last week.
The health exchange in Minnesota reaches a key milestone this week with scheduled votes on legislation in the House on Monday, March 4, and the Senate on Thursday.
Complaints allege unfair hiring
Instead of employing capable and qualified workers, many claim the Target Corporation would rather employ unfair hiring practices that disproportionately exclude African-Americans.
Ten African-American Minnesotans filed formal complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claiming they were wrongfully denied employment based on their past run-ins with the criminal justice system. In a press conference held outside of the Hennepin County Government Center, members of TakeAction Minnesota, the St. Paul branch of the NAACP and a woman who said her offer for employment was rescinded by Target once a misdemeanor conviction came to light, called on the retail giant to end its practice of using past criminal transgressions to deny employment. The group said they have learned of 150 applicants who were denied employment based on past criminal transgressions.
The group said Target is unnecessarily discriminating against applicants of color who have criminal records in their past, but who are presently qualified for the jobs for which they are applying.
TakeAction’s Liz Doyle Q-A: Health exchange must be consumer-friendly and help small buisnesses
Minnesota’s health insurance exchange — a landmark piece of state legislation — has drawn lobbyists and interest groups attempting to shape the far-reaching policy to the Capitol en masse this session.
Early last week, MinnPost spoke with Kate Johansen, a lobbyist with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, about the business group’s hopes and concerns regarding the exchange last week.
On Friday, we heard a different take when we sat down with Liz Doyle, associate director at TakeAction Minnesota, a progressive grass-roots group. She offers a consumer advocate’s perspective on the exchange — a key part of the federal health reform law.
Doyle focuses on health care issues for TakeAction and worked as policy director for the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, before joining the organization.
Dan McGrath builds on a life of social change for TakeAction Minnesota
Dan McGrath didn’t exactly spring from the womb as a community organizer, but he might as well have. Fourteen years of Catholic school and having a priest for an uncle and a nun for an aunt instilled a deep and abiding belief in Catholic social justice.
Minnesota woman guest of first lady
Michelle Obama shared company with a Minneapolis woman Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill.
Because of a chronic health problem, Abby Schanfield, 21, has become something of a spokeswoman in Minnesota for the landmark federal health care legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.
As such, Schanfield was one of nearly two dozen people invited to sit with the first lady during Obama’s speech.
Schanfield was born with toxoplasmosis, a disease that requires ongoing treatment such as periodic surgeries to replace a shunt in her brain.
She now has health insurance through her parents’ policy. But if she must buy coverage on her own, she fears it wouldn’t be available on the open market because of pre-existing condition exclusions in many health plans.
Minnesota health care advocate to sit with First Lady during State of the Union
WASHINGTON — Minnesotan Abby Schanfield will sit in the star-studded First Lady’s box at the State of the Union on Tuesday night.
Schanfield is a recent University of Minnesota graduate and a member of TakeAction Minnesota’s healthcare team. She’ll represent young beneficiaries of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act when she sits with Michelle Obama tonight.
House, Senate introduce bills to keep MinnesotaCare
House and Senate lawmakers want to move to the next stage of federal health care reforms without scrapping innovative state programs like MinnesotaCare.
The 20-year-old program, which provides affordable health coverage to lower-income Minnesotans, does not meet all the criteria of the current federal health care reforms. Rather than scrap the program and start again, a bipartisan group of lawmakers have petitioned the Obama administration for a waiver to allow the state to keep MinnesotaCare under the Affordable Care Act.
How to Vote Down Voter ID: Minnesotans defeat the GOP’s plan to restrict the franchise
In late October, two weeks before the election, amid the glut of attack ads, a TV commercial appeared in Minnesota that grabbed everyone’s attention. It opens on former Governor Arne Carlson, a Republican, who is a familiar and beloved figure in the state, looking into the camera. “This voter-restriction amendment is way too costly,” he tells viewers. An image of $100 bills flashes to his right. Carlson’s jowls quiver as he solemnly shakes his head. An American flag hangs behind his shoulder. Fade and cut to Mark Dayton, the state’s current governor, a Democrat, on the right half of the screen. “And it would keep thousands of seniors from voting,” Dayton continues, his Minnesota accent especially thick. As he speaks, a black-and-white photo of a forlorn elderly woman appears.
In a year when the two parties seemed to agree on little except their mutual distaste for each other, here was a split-screen commercial with a Democrat and a Republican, the only bipartisan TV spot Minnesotans would see. The two trade talking points, Carlson focusing on the financial burden, Dayton highlighting the various groups who would be disenfranchised, until the split screen vanishes, revealing the two governors side by side in front of the Minnesota Capitol*. “If you’re a Democrat, Republican, or independent please vote no—this is not good for Minnesota,” Carlson closes.
Exchange advances despite controversey
Battles over administration of health care marketplace play out in committee
January is generally not the time of year for four-hour committee hearings at the Capitol. But Wednesday’s gathering of the House Commerce and Consumer Protection Finance and Policy Committee nearly reached that dubious mark.
For more than two hours Republicans grilled Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, about the details of his bill establishing an online marketplace where individuals and businesses will be able to shop for health insurance. They raised concerns about adequately protecting users’ data, sufficient oversight of the exchange, and the cost of setting up the insurance marketplace. “The money in Washington isn’t free,” said Rep. Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove. “That’s still our money.” But ultimately the legislation cleared the committee on a 12-7, party-line vote.
What’s to like, what’s not to like in Dayton’s budget?
Delight, disdain greet Dayton’s plan.
Like an inkblot test, reactions to Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget depended on who was looking at it.
Republicans zeroed in on the tax provisions in the proposal, which included expanding the sales tax to goods and services ranging from baby aspirin to haircuts.
“I don’t know how you can say you’re going to collect $2 billion more in sales tax and not have the people of the state pay that,” said Senate Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie. “If you go out and get an oil change on your car, you’re going to pay a sales tax on it. If you go out and get a haircut, you’re going to pay a sales tax. If you join a health club. Those are things you are not paying sales tax on now.”
At the progressive coalition TakeAction Minnesota, executive director Dan McGrath applauded the tax changes.
“Minnesotans understand that we’re all a part of the same team and new investments won’t happen without new revenue,” McGrath said in a statement. “We thank Governor Dayton for his tenaciousness and vision in doing what is right for our state, not what is necessarily easy.”
Uncertain fate awaits Minnesota’s health plan for the working poor
The fate of a key state program that provides health coverage to low-income Minnesotans appears uncertain as the state begins serious efforts to implement the federal health care reform law.
The program, called MinnesotaCare, provides subsidized insurance to about 130,000 of the state’s working poor. Aspects of the current program make it incompatible with higher standards included in federal health care reform, which many states will race to enact before the 2014 deadline.
Advocates for the poor are concerned that without MinnesotaCare or a similar state solution in place, those served by the program could fall through the cracks once its federal waiver runs out at the end of the year.
Politician of the Year: ‘Vote No’ campaigns defied the odds in constitutional referendums
On the night that House Republicans voted to place an amendment prohibiting gay marriage on the ballot in 2012, Sen. Scott Dibble stood outside the chamber and vowed that Minnesota would become the first state in the country to defeat such a proposal.
“We love our families and our families are strong,” said Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, who is openly gay and married his partner in California. “People will know that in the next 18 months. And you know what? Thirty-one states, there’s not going to be 32.”
The statement proved prescient. Following a historic, statewide campaign that recruited 27,000 volunteers, raised more than $13 million in contributions and seemingly covered the state in orange “Vote No” yard signs and T-shirts, Minnesota voters defeated the proposed constitutional amendment by roughly 75,000 votes. It was part of a national wave that suggests a cultural turning point on the divisive issue. Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington all backed ballot measures legalizing same-sex marriages.
Community leaders discuss county needs with lawmakers
When you think about it, it’s true, people often do think of the economy a bit like the weather as if it’s something we have no control over. “But it’s simply not true because it’s something we create,” said Kathleen Blake, dismissing this common concept.
A community organizer with TakeAction Minnesota, Blake assembled local leaders and legislators for a community discussion session Tuesday afternoon at the Second Harvest North Central Food Bank in LaPrairie. TakeAction Minnesota is a grass-roots, statewide effort to organize and engage communities to “advocate for issues we care about and get people involved in the political process,” she explained.
“I believe that greater Minnesota can be influential. Our advocates from our part of the state can make a difference if we all work together,” began Blake as she invited those gathered to speak about the wide-ranging decisions elected leaders will face regarding the national and state budgets and how these decisions may affect greater Minnesota’s communities.
Demonstrators want to end Bush tax cuts for richest 2%, to protect working families
A group of over forty Minnesotans representing the Americans for Tax Fairness coalition, and including representatives of SEIU, TakeAction Minnesota, Minnesotans for a Fair Economy, ISAIAH and CTUL, demonstrated in downtown Minneapolis this morning calling for an end to the Bush Tax Cuts and tax breaks for big corporations. The demonstration coincided with the first week of the congressional lame-duck session where a budget showdown looms.
Cliff Martin, a first-time voter and high school senior from Northfield, told the crowd that the time is now to make sure people are protected, not wealthy CEOs and corporations. “On Tuesday, I voted for a fair economy,” he shouted. “It’s time the richest who’ve benefitted the most over the past decade start paying their fair share.” Martin supports a corporate tax reform plan that raises substantial revenue from those who have extracted billions from the American economy.
Victor reflects on voter ID campaign
As the dust settled from last Tuesday’s election, one of the key players in the successful effort to defeat the proposed voter ID constitutional amendment reflected on how his side prevailed in the dramatic upset.
Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minnesota (not the same Dan McGrath who coincidentally managed the pro-voter ID campaign), spent months suggesting that Minnesotans would turn against the proposed photo identification requirement once they learn more about it. That seemed unlikely a year ago when public opinion polls showed overwhelming support for voter ID. But in the end, that support was just 46 percent, well below the threshold needed to amend the constitution.
Voter ID: The More You Know, The Less You Like It
On first hearing, voter ID laws sound like an obvious and innocent idea. After all, don’t you need ID for everything else these days? So it’s not surprising that 80 percent of Minnesotans polled last year said they favored a proposed state ballot measure that would have required voters to present a government-issued photo ID before voting.
But then progressive groups launched a massive education campaign, telling people what it would really mean. And despite starting 60 points behind in the polls, come Election Day they defeated the measure by a 54-to-46 margin.
Dan McGrath, executive director of TakeAction Minnesota, the citizens group that led the campaign against the measure, said his team didn’t have the luxury of trying to persuade undecided voters or improve turnout. They had to change people’s minds.
Foes did ‘the unthinkable’ in stopping the voting amendment
Voting amendment opponents carved out a solid victory at the polls on Tuesday that would have been nearly unthinkable just months ago.
Advocates of requiring citizens to show a photo ID to vote ended up losing a battle where they were substantially outfunded and outmanned, despite enjoying 80 percent public support for the measure in May 2011.
Now proponents — seemingly invincible for so long — have vowed to return to the Legislature to continue working on election changes like the voting amendment, but it’s unlikely they’ll get far.
Democrats took back both the House and Senate, denying the partisan Republican-backed measure a legislative route.
How voter ID opponents defeated the amendment
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Bud Johnston’s decision about whether he would support the proposed voter identification amendment on Tuesday’s ballot came down to the wire.
For weeks, Johnston, of Pipestone, waffled between his belief that voters should provide identification in one way or another and his question about whether altering the state’s constitution permanently was a good idea.
“I just thought about it quite a bit and just couldn’t really make up my mind,” Johnston said. “The very words ‘constitutional amendment’ just really turned me off.”
Ultimately, Johnston voted against the proposal, which would have required voters to show photo identification at the polls in an effort to prevent what proponents argued is widespread voter fraud.
He’s just one of many voters who helped swing public opinion against the constitutional amendment in the last days of the campaign. For months, it appeared that the voter ID amendment would pass. As late as the end of October, two polls found the proposal had a healthy lead among voters.
MN only state to vote down voter ID referendum
Voter ID opponents claimed victory early Wednesday morning with 95 percent of precincts reporting only 45.8 percent in favor of the proposed amendment that would require photographic identification for voting.
The vote ends months of campaigning from both sides of the contentious issue as Minnesota becomes the first state to reject a voter ID amendment.
“It was a hard fight, but it was a right fight, and tonight we can declare that we did it,” said Luchelle Stevens, campaign manager for Our Vote Our Future.
Dan McGrath, of Take Action MN, which opposed the amendment, attributed the success to “grassroots organizing.”
“A year and a half ago, when this polled at 80 percent, you know it was organizations with networks in communities who jumped in and who started talking to people about the facts,” McGrath said.
Fights over marriage, voter ID go down to wire
Across Minnesota, volunteers and politicians are dug in for the final stretch before Election Day.
From daylong bus tours to daybreak rallies, Republicans and Democrats are fanning out across Minnesota this weekend in a frenzied final push of an election season that is bound to have major consequences for the state.
Republicans spent Saturday putting miles on their cars and pleading for last-minute dollars in hopes of hardening their control of the Legislature. DFLers knocked on doors and embarked on a bus tour to try to wrestle back control and chart a new course for the state.
Meanwhile, supporters and opponents of proposed constitutional amendments that would limit marriage to heterosexuals and require voters to have an approved ID to cast a ballot were trying to break through to Minnesotans who’ve not already made up their minds.
The campaign within the state also is taking on new importance at the national level. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is placing a new emphasis on Minnesota. His running mate, Paul Ryan, has made recent visits to the state and plans another Sunday, while independent political groups have unleashed a blizzard of TV ads blasting President Obama. The president, meanwhile, deployed former President Bill Clinton in the state to help nail down its 10 electoral votes, which have been seen as more likely to go the president’s way and could prove crucial in a close election.
