WoMN Focus

Although the MN Legislator is in a battle over taxes today, it has been a very active week on the floor.

This week the house passed a public safety finance bill which, along with the senate version will be worked on in committee soon. The house also passed a funding package for jobs and housing that “includes funding for jobs, economic development and housing programs through several state agencies. The bill would temporarily increase the workforce development fee paid by employers and use the money for several new and existing employment programs, including a wage subsidy similar to the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development program of the early 1980s”.

Finally, the Early childhood finance omnibus bill also passed the house.

The omnibus early childhood finance bill was passed 84-47 by the House after a debate that featured 11 amendments offered by Republicans, just one of which was adopted. (Watch)

The bill’s short life ends here, however, as its provisions are expected to be divided in conference committee between the K-12 education finance and health and human services omnibus bills. Some early childhood programs are funded through each channel.

Its sponsor, Rep. Nora Slawik (DFL-Maplewood), said HF2088 addresses “three overarching goals” the division has maintained through the session: getting an early start on closing the achievement gap, increasing child care quality and readying children for kindergarten.

While most Republicans believe in those broad goals, they have different priorities about how best to target programs and funds to the most at-risk children, and prefer to direct funds to strengthen children within the context of their families over state-run programs.

Check the above link to see who voted for and against the bill.

Rep. Ann Lenczewski (DFL-Bloomington) tells Politics in Minnesota about her tax overhaul proposal and how it will affect Minnesotans, including how the current tax system doesn’t work. “…[I]n the tax expenditure part of the Minnesota tax code, we have all this hidden spending that people aren’t aware of. It doesn’t happen in appropriations or in the finance process, which people can see. It happens before all the revenues are collected for the chairs to spend money on.

And so it’s not transparent. It’s people getting benefits ahead of the crowd. The insidious part is that it’s disproportionately going to the wealthiest Minnesotans. So I’m trying to dissemble that and say that the answer to the deficit isn’t just about raising taxes, It’s about shrinking government. These are cuts; it’s getting rid of a bunch of tax benefit programs that we have that allow people to get other people’s hard-earned tax dollars based on the fact they’ve got high incomes. Instead of cutting the poorest folks, or middle-income people, which is basically what all the fiscal chairs do when they cut–those people are sharing hugely in dealing with this deficit. They’re getting hammered with the cuts that are going to happen.”

Read the whole interview here.

One of the greatest effects the downturn in the economy has had on our communities is the increase in hungry families, the majority of the hungry being women and children.

Second Harvest has done the math and estimated that they are 125 million meals away from ensuring every Minnesotan has three meals to eat each day.

To read their full report, go here.

To learn more about Minnesota Foodshare, including how you can help, go here.

(Via Families and Work Institute)

NEW STUDY SHOWS SIGNIFICANT AND SURPRISING CHANGES AMONG MEN AND WOMEN AT WORK AND AT HOME

First report from 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce traces the trends in men’s and women’s attitudes and actions over the past three decades

New York, NY, March 26, 2009 – For the first time, young women want just as much to advance to jobs with more responsibility as young men. Moreover, being a mother does not significantly change young women’s career ambitions.

These changes in attitudes reflect women’s evolving roles in the workplace. The share of dual-earner family income contributed by women has risen to 44% and 26% of women now earn 10% or more than their husbands. At the same time, men have increased the amount of time they spend with young children and are experiencing more work-family conflict than women. These are among the findings of a newly released report entitled “Times Are Changing: Gender and Generation at Work and At Home,” which examines the evolution of work-related gender roles over the past three decades.

Full release here

More from Families and Work Institute here

Unmarried women’s unemployment rate higher than national average at 9.5%

(Via Women’s Voices, Women’s Vote)

Washington, D.C. – February’s unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released today, reinforces what one advocacy group has been emphasizing for years: Unmarried women are among the hardest hit during an economic crisis. The current overall unemployment rate is 8.1% and for unmarried women, 9.5% is not only higher than the national average, but is also essentially double that of married women (5.1%).Full release here…

For more news from Women’s Voices Women’s Votes, click here