Economic Justice

It is time to end poverty in Minnesota. It’s not okay for working people to struggle to pay for necessities. It is not acceptable for Minnesotans to be homeless. Or hungry.

Consequently, Senator Marty consistently supports efforts to:

• Significantly Increase the Minimum Wage: Minnesota workers deserve a living wage.

• Double Minnesota’s Working Family Tax Credit: Even with a higher minimum wage many workers would not be able to pay for basic needs, so he is pushing to set the Working Family Credit at 75% of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. This provides a boost of several thousand dollars per year for many low-income workers, based on income and family size. Tax credits for working Minnesotans living in poverty have been an extremely popular and effective tool at reducing poverty.

• Ensure Child Care is Affordable to All: The sliding fee Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) is helpful, but it doesn’t cover enough workers and the reimbursements are not sufficient. Minnesota should ensure that parents can find quality, affordable childcare in their community, childcare workers can earn a decent wage, and providers can afford additional training in child development.

• Boost the MN Family Investment Program (MFIP) Grants: When parents are unable to work, Minnesotans have recognized the importance of providing financial support to help them survive. We know that children whose families cannot afford housing and food are robbed of their potential – we can measure how it inhibits their physical, mental, and emotional development. Unfortunately, financial assistance payments in Minnesota have fallen far behind inflation over the past 40 years. Inflation over those decades has taken its toll and those families are more stressed than ever. A sizable increase in MFIP would do much to stabilize the lives of these children.

• Fund these investments in Minnesota families by closing the loophole in which high income earners are exempt from most federal social security taxes. Currently, the federal government collects 6.2% of earned income on all wages up to $176,100/year, but nothing on incomes above that level. Minnesota cannot change the federal social security law, but if the federal government is not going to collect this revenue from high income earners it is reasonable for the state to collect that revenue to pay for these investments in families. Under this provision, high income earners would pay the same percentage of their earned income in social security taxes that every other Minnesota worker pays.

Circumstances will always occur that bring people into poverty—if you lose your job, or your car breaks down, or you get hit with large medical bills, you may slip into poverty. When we talk about ending poverty, we cannot prevent people from falling into it, but we can help them move up and out of poverty quickly, so they are not trapped. 

Recent successes in passing earned safe and sick time and paid family & medical leave are also helping more Minnesotans thrive.

These changes, along with stronger collective bargaining rights for workers, and passage of the Minnesota Health Plan (or the proposed Improved Medicare for All, nationally) would have a profound impact on families currently left behind by the economy. 

For families who struggle to make ends meet, we are in an economic crisis. All of us lose when many of our neighbors are struggling. These changes are urgently needed.