Rep. Olson: The Capitol to the Community – March 4, 2022

Dear Neighbors,

I want to start by sharing my best wishes for the people of Ukraine following the Russian attacks. We should all reject this unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation and hope for peace to prevail.

New Economic Forecast

This week, Minnesota Management and Budget announced the latest state economic forecast showing a $9.25 billion budget surplus for the current biennium. This is a historic figure and looking ahead to the rest of the session, it’s time to put workers and their families first. Right now, too many people are struggling with high costs for child care, health care, food, gas, and so much more every day. While corporate profits continue to soar, we need to deliver solutions to help workers, families, and students tackle the challenges they’re facing.

Minnesotans have been through a lot the past two years, and have demonstrated how deeply resilient they are over and over again. While we need to exercise a degree of caution considering ongoing uncertainties in the world, our budget surplus gives lawmakers an opportunity to invest in a brighter future for everyone in our state.

Frontline Worker Pay

In my last e-mail newsletter, I discussed our work to invest $1 billion to provide bonus checks to Minnesota’s frontline workers. Last week, the Minnesota House approved legislation to at least 667,000 first responders, nurses, child care providers, janitors and so many others who put their health at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know frontline workers have risked their lives during this pandemic to keep our kids safe at school and in child care settings, ensured we could buy food at the grocery store, and took care of us at the clinic or hospital, no matter what. This bill shows we’re not just paying lip service and calling our frontline workers heroes, but really delivering for them and putting some much-needed money in their pockets in appreciation for their dedication. We have a lot more to do to support workers, but this is a significant step forward highlighting how House DFLers are putting Minnesota workers and their families first.

Expanding Child Care in Greater Minnesota

Child care remains one of the biggest challenges to success for Minnesota families. Moreover, without child care, the full potential for local economies is limited when parents can’t join the workforce simply because they can’t access affordable child care. Between 2000 and 2020, Greater Minnesota lost a staggering 20,000 child care slots.

Last week, the House Early Childhood Finance and Policy Committee held a hearing on my bill to invest $10 million toward a new Greater Minnesota Child Care Facility Capital Grant Program. For start-up child care centers and providers, a lack of capital is a major barrier, as is turning a profit early on, putting the viability of the business at risk. We heard from farmers, child care providers, and parents about some of the difficulties they’ve had as a result of the child care shortage. The Center for Rural Policy and Development also shared some findings, trends, and ideas to make child care more accessible, affordable, and reliable all across our state. I’m hopeful given our budget surplus we can work together to deliver additional resources so families and communities can have the child care availability they’re counting on.

As always, I invite you to reach out to me with your input, ideas, or if I can ever be of assistance. It’s an honor to represent you.

Sincerely,

Liz Olson
State Representative