To the editor of the White Bear Press:
As Minnesota’s population ages, we need to recruit and retain talented, compassionate people to provide the highest quality of care for our loved ones – and we need to pay those individuals a living wage that allows them to provide for themselves and their families.
During the 2013 Legislative Session, I voted for a 5 percent increase in state funding for Minnesota’s nursing homes. The funding increase (the first in four years) went into effect on September 1, 2013.
On April 3, I voted for a 5 percent increase in state funding for Minnesotans who care for our seniors and people with disabilities living at home and in community-based settings. The Senate recently passed the same 5 percent increase and Governor Dayton is expected to sign the measure into law, which would take effect July 1, 2014.
Both funding increases are important steps toward providing a better quality of life for our seniors and people with disabilities as well as providing better wages for the Minnesotans who care for them.
Most importantly, the Legislature made these investments while maintaining a structurally balanced budget.
Thanks to smart fiscal management at our state capitol, we ended the perpetual budget deficits that brought about funding cuts and pay freezes for care providers over the past decade. And we put ourselves in a better position to approve additional funding increases for this vital sector of our workforce in the future as the cost of living rises.
We must do more to support our nursing homes and home and community-based health care providers, but the 5 percent funding boost for each group marks long-overdue progress and a step in the right direction while making sure our state government lives within its means.
I’m proud to be a part of the broad coalition of Minnesotans that helped make that possible and I’m grateful for the opportunity to improve the well-being of all Minnesotans, including our seniors, people with disabilities and the Minnesotans who care for them.
Sincerely,
Peter Fischer
State Representative, District 43A