Dear Neighbors,
We had several long days and nights of debate this week, working on omnibus higher education, agriculture, and jobs bills. On Friday, we’re debating one of the most important pieces of omnibus legislation – the Health and Human Services bill.
A couple weeks ago, we found out Republicans aim to cut $600 million from the HHS budget. The size of that cut alone is disturbing. However, the failure to include any raise for our state’s hardworking home health care workers is unconscionable.
There are 80,000 of these workers in Minnesota and there are 10,000 more jobs than workers. They care for elderly and disabled Minnesotans, making too little money and suffering the incredible stress of extreme hours with little support due to the workforce shortage. Because of the low wages, the field is experiencing huge turnover as workers leave for less stressful jobs with better pay.
These workers care for the most vulnerable Minnesotans; our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters. It is past time for us to provide them with a fair wage that incentivizes them to continue in the industry. No caregiver under this amount of stress and working as many hours in a week as they do deserves to rely on food stamps for themselves and their families.
Recent town hall
I hosted a town hall with Sen. Jim Carlson recently and I was very pleased with the turnout. We had more than 100 people show up to discuss health care options and the best path forward. I want to thank Sen. John Marty, Rep. David Bly, and other presenters for lending their additional expertise to make it a well-rounded and informative event.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at the Capitol.
Sincerely,
Sandra Masin
State Representative