Action Alert: Call you Minnesota legislators
On Monday, May 5th, the Minnesota House passed their version of the human services budget bill which included several deep cuts that negatively impact Minnesotans with Down syndrome and other disabilities. Specifically, the bill calls for the reinstatement of parental fees to access MA-TEFRA, something many advocates worked decades to eliminate less than two years ago. While the fees come in at 675% of Federal Poverty Level in this proposal ($179,900 for family of 3); this opens the door for the thresholds to get lower and lower over time (this is how it went down last time.)
In addition to parental fees the bill also includes several cuts, rate adjustments and inflation adjustments that will negatively impact waivered services. While each standing on its own may the tolerable considering the budget deficit Minnesota is facing, the compound effect of all of them in one bill is devastating. Overall disability services took the brunt of the $1.3 billion that the house was charged to cut.
The senate has its own version of the bill. That version does not include parental fees or several of the negative changes. While there are still cuts because of the pending deficit, it is a much more reasonable share of the cuts.
So, what's next? The House bill and the Senate bill will need to be reconciled. A committee will be selected to do so.
What can you do? Call your state representative and senator to tell them not to balance the budget on the backs of Minnesotans with disabilities. If you need to know who represents you, click here to look it up.
If you are represented by Rep. Noor (60B-Minneapolis), Rep. Schomacker (21A-Luverne/Southwestern MN), Sen. Hoffman (34-Brooklyn Park/Rogers), Sen. Fateh (62-Minneapolis/Powderhorn Park), or Sen. Rasmussen (09-Fergus Falls/Western MN)...call them daily. There is a very good chance many or all of these legislators will be on the reconciliation committee.
Here is the detail on the house bill that passed: https://www.house.mn.gov/sessiondaily/Story/18767
