Wednesdays4Kids May 19

The best interests of children must be the primary concern in making decisions that may affect them. All adults should do what is best for children. When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children. This particularly applies to budget, policy and law makers.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

End of Legislative Session 2010
This year thanks to the work of faithful citizen advocates around the state, a tough legislative session was not as tough on children as it could have been. Thank you to everyone who contacted legislators, participated in rallies at the capitol, and came to Day on the Hill, your work paid off!

This year there were no permanent cuts to child care services included in the final Health and Human Services Budget that the Governor signed into law. The Basic Sliding Fee overspending was taken away in order to help balance the budget, but no families currently on child care assistance will feel the effects of this cut.

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), which provides cash assistance to families living in poverty, incurred only a small cut. The Governor had proposed eliminating MFIP assistance to families with disabled parents and children. That did not occur. Instead there was one cut, reducing a $50 a month bonus to $25 a month for families leaving assistance with a job.

Unfortunately we were unable to pass any revenue raising legislation that would expand programs that help our state's children, but considering the size of the budget deficit and the amount of proposed cuts from the Governor, we were able to fend off some of the worst cuts to families in Minnesota who rely on this assistance. Thank you again for all the work that you did to make the concerns of people of faith known in this complicated and sometimes messy process.

Join the iCAN Network or Renew Your Membership
Please consider joining the iCAN legislative network and support the work we do with you membership donation. iCAN members receive legislative updates during the session, stay informed of iCAN events, are invited to Day on the Hill, and can host iCAN adult forums in their congregations. Most importantly, donations support real systemic change for the children of Minnesota. Click here to make an online donation today.