[ST. PAUL, MN] – Today, during Black History Month, Governor Tim Walz highlighted a series of proposals within the One Minnesota Budget that would support Black Minnesotans. These proposals were informed by dozens of formal meetings the Walz-Flanagan Administration has held with hundreds of community leaders and members of the Black community over the last year.

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor announced their One Minnesota Budget over the past two weeks, which would make Minnesota the best state in the country for kids, invest in Minnesota’s economic future , protect health and safety , cut taxes , and improve the state’s infrastructure . The Governor’s entire two-year budget was released on January 24.

“Our mission is to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family for everyone. This budget was built with the belief that we cannot build One Minnesota without ensuring Black Minnesotans are heard, supported, valued,” said Governor Walz. “By investing in comprehensive health care, expanding access to child care, strengthening public safety, taking bold action to reduce child poverty, and investing directly in Black entrepreneurs and Black businesses – we have a historic opportunity to improve the lives of Minnesotans through the One Minnesota budget. I’m grateful for the Black community leaders whose vision for a stronger, more equitable Minnesota informed this budget.”

“From providing support for small businesses to expanding culturally-specific after-school learning, our administration partnered with Black community leaders to ensure our budget makes strategic and equitable investments in a stronger economic future for all Minnesotans,” said Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. “I am grateful for the spaces created to listen, learn, and be in community. Your voices helped build this budget.”

An outline of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s budget proposals that would support Black Minnesotans is below.

Health, Housing, and Wellness

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor propose increasing health care access and affordability by establishing a MinnesotaCare public option that will offer more affordable comprehensive health insurance options for Minnesotans, including the nearly 300,000 Minnesotans who remain uninsured. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor also propose expanding Medical Assistance (MA) eligibility to reduce health coverage interruption that prevents Minnesota kids from seeing a doctor when they need to. To ensure that Minnesotans receive the care they deserve, the One Minnesota Budget will require health insurance plans regulated by state law to provide preventive services at no cost.

Additionally, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s budget funds an Office of African American Health to address the root causes of health inequities disproportionately impacting Minnesota’s African American communities. The office will engage across sectors to provide policy and program recommendations to improve African American health outcomes, issue grants, and develop immersion experiences for secondary education and community college students to improve workforce diversity.

The One Minnesota Budget includes a $22 million proposal that expands access to non-narcotic pain management service; enhances prevention and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness; and improves surveillance and identification of substances involved in overdoses. Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan’s budget will support better outcomes for people and families impacted by substance and opioid use disorder by providing ongoing funding to support grants for healing and overdose prevention.

To help more Minnesotans become homeowners, the One Minnesota Budget includes a new First-Generation Homebuyer Program and down payment assistance and closing cost loans to help Minnesotans who are ready to become homeowners. The One Minnesota Budget also provides rental assistance to Minnesotans with lower incomes and disabilities through the Housing Trust Fund and includes investments in the Greater Minnesota Workforce Housing program to provide grants to local units of government to build new rental housing in smaller communities.

Education and Lifelong Learning

To ensure no student goes hungry at school, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s budget includes $389 million in 2023-2025 and $424 million in 2026-2027 to provide universal school meals so no student needs to learn on an empty stomach. Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan’s budget supports Minnesota’s youngest learners with funding to keep them in the classroom and addresses in-school and out-of-school suspensions. The budget funds grants to schools to provide coordination and training on alternatives to suspensions and shift away from punitive and exclusionary school practices toward those that are restorative and support student learning.

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan also recommend expanding grants for student teachers and loan repayment for teachers working in shortage areas to ensure more students receive the financial support they need to realize their dreams of becoming teachers and ensure more teachers of color enter the workforce. From the Direct Admissions program that helps high school seniors apply to colleges for free, to increased funding for the State Grant, to loan repayment assistance and student supports, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan are breaking down financial barriers to higher education and ensuring postsecondary is an option for all Minnesota students.

Community Safety and Violence Prevention

To reduce gun violence across the state, the One Minnesota Budgets proposes universal background checks on all firearm sales, extreme risk protection orders to help remove firearms from those who pose an immediate threat to themselves or others, raising the minimum age for purchasing military-style firearms to 21 years old, banning high-capacity magazines, and promoting safe storage of firearms. To support meaningful community engagement, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan propose investments into the Department of Public Safety to work with stakeholders on public safety goals while identifying and addressing gaps in community connections. The One Minnesota Budget also includes added capacity for the Department of Human Rights to improve the state’s ability to better collect and analyze hate and discrimination data.

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan’s budget establishes the Office of Missing and Murdered African American Women to promote the safety and success of Black women and girls, through training, advocating for systems change, and ending violence against and trafficking of Black women and girls.

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan recognize that meaningful rehabilitation for people who are incarcerated reduces their risk of reoffending upon release. The One Minnesota budget proposes the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act to create incentives for people in the custody of the Department of Corrections to participate in and make progress toward individualized treatment plans to help them return successfully to their communities. To address the chronic shortage of education opportunities inside Minnesota’s prisons, the One Minnesota Budget includes opportunities for robust educational programming for every willing participant committed to the custody of the Department of Corrections.

Kids, Families, and Caregiving

Shown to reduce child poverty and improve outcomes for families at every stage of life, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan recommend a nation-leading Child Tax Credit, providing lower income families $1,000 per child with a maximum credit of $3,000. This Child Tax Credit alone would cut child poverty by 25%. To reduce child care expenses and provide economic relief to middle class and lower income families, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan also propose expanding the Child and Dependent Care Credit, reducing costs for 100,000 Minnesota households.

More predictable income helps families weather crises, make ends meet, and eventually stabilize toward financial independence. For Minnesotans accessing the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) and General Assistance, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan propose changing the budgeting and application period from monthly to every six months. These changes would reduce paperwork and help program participants plan ahead, knowing their income and supportive resources are stable for six months. Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan’s budget also provides a critical investment in the Minnesota Food Shelf Program at a time when more neighbors are accessing food nutrition programs.

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan recommend establishing full-day public prekindergarten for nearly 25,000 eligible children using a mixed delivery model including school-based learning, Head Start, community-based centers, and family child care programs. The One Minnesota Budget also includes funding for the After School Community Learning grant program that expired in 2009.

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s budget funds the Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development Grants, currently set to expire June 30, 2023. The proposal provides grants to tribal and community partnerships to promote health and well-being for pregnant and parenting families with young children. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor also propose providing a year of financial support for young adults after leaving extended foster care to provide support, connections, and financial resources and help youth transition into independence, reduce their risk of homelessness, teen pregnancy, and incarceration, and improve educational outcomes.

Financial Stability and Prosperity, Investing in a Climate Focused Future

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan’s budget creates a Paid Family and Medical Leave program to support businesses, help parents stay in the labor force, and ensure Minnesotans do not have to make the choice between a paycheck and taking time off to care for a new baby or a family member with a serious illness. The One Minnesota Budget also supports Minnesota’s workers by increasing access to earned sick and safe time, ensuring workers can accrue up to 48 hours a year of earned sick and safe time for when they need to recover from an illness, go to a medical appointment, care for a child during a school closure, or get care and assistance due to domestic abuse, stalking, or sexual assault. The One Minnesota Budget addresses Minnesota’s child care shortage while strengthening and expanding the child care industry. Investments include payments for child care programs to retain staff through increased compensation, support earnings for family child care, and support providers starting child care businesses.

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan also propose $20 million in funding for the Angel Tax Credit in the next biennium to assist early-stage businesses by providing a tax credit to investors or investment funds to incentivize investment in companies with founders that are women, veterans, people of color, Native people, and those headquartered in Greater Minnesota. The Main Street Economic Revitalization Fund is one of the ways Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan are reinvesting in Minnesota communities that were hit hard by the events of 2020. The One Minnesota Budget includes nearly $85 million in new funding to multiply the positive impacts of this program across the state. Finally, the One Minnesota Budget expands the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Emerging Farmers Office and allows additional staff to focus on the needs of emerging farmers, and immigrant and BIPOC producers and business owners. These staff will help the department remove barriers that prevent new or potential farmers from entering the field or succeeding.