The Minnesota legislature finished its session on May 17. The state had a $3 billion budget deficit this year, but the Minnesota Half in Ten partners and our allies mounted a “Stand Together Minnesota” campaign that helped to defeat proposals from the governor and the House to make serious and deep cuts to the income-assistance provisions in the state’s General Assistance and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.
“Justice We Pursue” was the theme of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition’s annual day on Capitol Hill. JRLC is one of the Minnesota groups working on the Half in Ten campaign. Its day on the hill has always been focused on state-level policies, but this year it used the Half in Ten logo on its outreach materials and on the jumbo screen at the convening and briefing sessions. Brian Rusche, executive direction of JRLC, spoke to the 750 participants about Half in Ten and our fairly new A Minnesota Without Poverty campaign. Read more »
The Minnesota Half in Ten coalition has been very active the past month, holding several events and educating hundreds of Minnesotans on the Half in Ten campaign and our shared policy priorities.
The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition just last week held a Day on the Hill at the Minnesota state capitol, where more than 1,000 activists learned about the Half in Ten campaign and advocated on state and federal issues to reduce poverty.
Nancy Maeker, the executive director of A Minnesota Without Poverty, keynoted three Bread for the World workshop events in late February, helping to gather more than 200 letters in support of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.
And A Minnesota Without Poverty also hosted a statewide gathering in late February on five sites to report on the progress toward ending poverty and to issue a call to action. Affirmative Options Coalition and Joint Religious Legislative Coalition were two of the co-sponsors for the event which drew more than 400 people in St. Paul, Duluth, Moorhead, Willmar, and Rochester, with additional supporters joining the webcast program online. The call to action highlighted coordinating the Minnesota legislative agenda with the Half in Ten issues and encouraged advocates to support the Half in Ten campaign. After the formal program, all participants gathered around tables for discussion, letter writing, phone calling—and food.
You can view photos and an introductory video from the gathering on Facebook.
The Minnesota Half in Ten Coalition – composed of Affirmative Options Coalition, the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, and a Minnesota Without Poverty – is already planning several events to build out the movement to cut poverty in half in ten years.
Email Nancy Maeker at nancymaeker@mnwithoutpoverty.org to get involved.
This January, Half in Ten joined with the National Employment Law Project, NELP, to urge Congress to include urgent reforms to the Unemployment Insurance system in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA. The antiquated unemployment insurance system had failed to ensure equal benefits for low-wage workers, part-time workers, workers who left work due to “compelling family reasons,” and long-term unemployed individuals. Low-wage workers are only one-third as likely to collect unemployment benefits, even though they have double the chances of being unemployed. For this reason, UI reform was one of the 12 steps that the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty identified to cut poverty in half in ten years.
Congress listened to advocates, and included unemployment reform in ARRA, allocating $7 billion for the project. And these reforms have begun to reach unemployed workers across the country. Earlier this week, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a report (PDF) detailing the “unprecedented wave” of unemployment insurance reforms that has swept across the country since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) became law on February 17th, 2009. Read more »
December 18, 2008
Workday Minnesota
ST. PAUL – With large corporations and small businesses slashing jobs at record rates, the country can’t afford to wait for an economic recovery plan, a coalition of Minnesota organizations said Thursday. The group announced a “Jobs and Economic Recovery Now!” campaign to have a plan on President Barack Obama’s desk soon after he takes office.
Enact Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act
An editorial from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The recent release of state and U.S. unemployment rates is just the latest indication that the global economic crisis is quickly becoming an employment crisis as well.
Nationally, new claims for unemployment benefits last week spiked to a 16-year high of 542,000, which brings the four-week average to 506,500. Those are the worst numbers in 25 years, and it’s likely November’s unemployment rate will go even higher than October’s 6.5 percent.
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For years, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has called for regulatory measures to stanch the increasing problem of subprime lending and the resulting foreclosure crisis. Read more about their efforts across the nation.
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Americans increasingly face financial uncertainty as they struggle to make ends meet during a period of rising food and fuel prices, a continuing mortgage crisis, and an overall economic downturn. Yet even before these latest challenges, a growing number of state and local governments launched comprehensive anti-poverty initiatives. These include special legislative caucuses, poverty reduction targets, and information-sharing summits.
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