SPEAKER: Minnesota Council on Disability 2023 Legislative Forum.
DAVID DIVELY: Hello and welcome.
My name is David Dively. I’m a white male with blue glasses, who is bald, is wearing a blue sweater, white shirt, and red tie. The background has the state capitol with our agency logo in green, blue, and white.
This is the Minnesota Council on Disability’s 2023 Legislative Forum.
The Minnesota Council on Disability, with a staff of around seven and a $1 million per fiscal year budget, provides technical assistance on disability rights and laws, training on disability culture, public policy advocacy, consultation to the executive branch, legislative branch, and judiciary branch, as well as to the public, and training for government agencies and organizations, all for the purpose of advancing civil rights and services for Minnesotans with disabilities.
Our strategic goals are created by our governor-appointed Council board, who are made up of citizens across the state, and we, as staff, work to carry out that mission.
This forum is a showcase of what we can do, what the Minnesota Council on Disability can do, and what people with disabilities can do when we come together. Today, we will touch on numerous critical topics. And we ask that state leaders here today listen with an open heart and mind to understand how these policies impact everyday people in Greater Minnesota and in the metro statewide.
Through this forum today, we want you to have a better understanding of our agency, to see yourselves represented through the Council members through the citizen advocates, nonprofits, and staff, and to understand some of the policy issues that we are working on in 2023. And to challenge all of you to stay engaged throughout the legislative session, so we can make positive change for Minnesotans with disabilities across all parts of life.
NIIKI: Hello, my name is Nikki Villavicencio, and my pronouns are she/her/sha. I am a disabled Filipinx who uses an electric wheelchair to get around my community.
Thank you for coming to the legislative forum. It is my pleasure to serve on the Council, which directly connects the opinions and priorities of people with disabilities to this independent state agency and to the policy leaders in Minnesota. We bring our stories, our ideas, and solutions to the table to continue to fight for our civil rights and educate the wider community about issues that affect our ability to thrive in the communities we are from and in the communities where we choose to live.
To the residents of Minnesota: Your voices and opinions are crucial to the Council to guide the work of Minnesota’s Council on Disability. We hope you will be moved to action. We trust the legislative members here today will be moved to action.
TREVOR: My name is Trevor Turner, and I’m the Public Policy Director for the Minnesota Council on Disability. I am a white male with blonde hair, wearing a suit, with the Minnesota State Capitol building as my background.
The 2023 legislative session will be historic in many ways. For example, the legislature will be working with the largest budget surplus in Minnesota history. The Minnesota Council on Disability will be advocating for that money to be spent on programs and policies that support and empower the disability community. The state legislature has a unique opportunity to address the systemic inequalities and barriers that Minnesotans with disabilities face every day. And the Minnesota Council on Disability will hold them accountable to deliver on their promises to support Minnesotans with disabilities.
Some of the legislative agenda items, like the employment and retention of employees with disabilities package, are a culmination of years of work from dozens of stakeholders from across the state. Policymaking is neither easy nor expedient. Includes the hiring and retaining more employees with disabilities so that we create a pipeline of new leaders with disabilities who sit at the policy and decision-making table in our state agencies. We believe that, with more employees, managers, directors, and commissioners with disabilities creating and implementing the policies and programs that serve our community, the better represented and better served Minnesotans with disabilities will be.
The biggest part of disability advocacy are the partners and coalition that come together as a team to take on the most challenging issues. Thank you everyone who is here today, and I look forward to a successful disability-forward 2023 legislative session.
SPEAKER: Rare Disease Insurance Access.
QUINN: Welcome. My name is Quinn Nystrom, MCD Council member from Saint Michael, Minnesota. I have long blonde hair, and I’m wearing a black suit jacket, and I’m sitting in my home office.
Rare disease insurance access is our first segment today. This important conversation features Leo’s mom and citizen advocate, Anne St. Martin.
SPEAKER: Infant boy lying in a hospital bed. He is in a coma. He has an intubation tube in his mouth, tape across his face, IVs in each arm and both legs. He is lying on a sheet decorated with moose and trees. He has a hospital ID band on his foot that says his name and birth date.
ANNE: Leo is my son. My name is Anne St. Martin. I am a white female with brown hair wearing a black sweater.
Leo has a rare genetic disease called Pompe disease. Leo’s Pompe disease diagnosis only came because he almost died. Our pediatrician recommended that we go see a pediatric neurologist, but first, we needed to wait for prior authorization from our insurance.
As I sat there and watched my beautiful baby get weaker and weaker, I knew I could not wait the three to six weeks they said it could take for insurance to approve the appointment. They then told me the next available appointment was in four weeks. I told them I would not stand for that.
Luckily, they had a pediatric neurologist physician assistant that I could see the next day. I remember thinking, this was it. We were going to get the answers we needed. It would be worth the cost, and Leo would be OK.
Instead, the PA came into the room, looked him over, listened to his heart, and then told us she was calling an ambulance and checking us into the hospital. When we got to the hospital, they did an EKG and saw that Leo was in heart failure. There was more paperwork, more begging insurance for approval, and more watching our son lay in a hospital bed while the disease progressed. We were in the hospital for four months in all, until Leo was strong enough to come home.
I know today that we are one of the lucky rare disease families out there. We had good private PPO insurance when we entered that hospital. We had the ability to afford thousands of dollars of out-of-pocket expenses to be seen quickly, which literally saved Leo’s life.
I can’t even imagine waking up to my dead child in a crib because I was waiting on a piece of paper recommended by another doctor to see a specialty doctor. Can you?
If insurance barriers for rare disease patients were not so complicated, the state would save money in the long term on the cost of families that have to apply for Medical Assistance, even with primary coverage. As a parent and a citizen, I don’t want the other families of rare disease children to have to go through what we went through. I want insurance companies to know that rare disease, while rare, some still have a possible treatment plan for these patients.
I want the medical community to understand that time is essential to treating these rare diseases. I want insurance companies to not stand in the way of a child’s life or future because it needs a prior authorization.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
SPEAKER: Toddler using a motorized wheelchair, wearing a baseball cap and uniform, holding a baseball bat. He is smiling.
ERICA: I’m Erica Barnes. I’m the Executive Director of the newly formed state agency, Minnesota Rare Disease Advisory Council. I’m a white woman with brown hair and glasses. I’m wearing a black suit, silver necklace.
Sadly, Anne’s story is not unique in the rare disease community. Anne, you know this, and so what I’d like to do is put Anne’s story kind of in the context of the rare disease community to help people understand what our community is facing.
The average time to diagnosis that you’ll find cited a lot of times in the literature is seven to eight years. That can be the average time it takes for a patient to get to a rare disease diagnosis.
LIZ: I’m Representative Liz Reyer, Eagan, soon to be representing Eagan and Burnsville. White woman with short, grayish blonde hair and glasses wearing a dark green sweater with a blurred background.
The Network Access Bill has been important to me from the beginning of my first term. I came into the House knowing that our health care system is not set up to serve people. It is not set up to address health issues or to keep people healthy. We can’t let children like Leo have to wait while we get through those solutions. This is a classic example where we have the health care available in our state or in our country. We have artificial barriers that are keeping people from taking advantage of it and being able to use it.
ANNE: My name is Anne St. Martin. And that’s the other thing I think we should all remember, is that all this time, and money, and waiting, Leo was really suffering in silence. And, I mean, that’s the hardest thing, as a mom, to get over and to think of. And as any parent knows, you don’t want your child to suffer.
SPEAKER: Hearing Aid Affordability.
ALICIA: Hello, I’m Alicia Lane, the Government Relations Director for the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing.
Here at MNCDHH, much of our focus is on communication access for the 20% of Minnesotans who identify as deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing. The cost of one hearing aid averages $2,000, and most people need two. That means $3,000 to $6,000 for both ears. Minnesota has an affordability gap for adults with moderate to profound hearing loss.
A bill introduced in 2019 sought to expand the hearing aid insurance mandate to all ages. It’s time to revisit this bill. We urge Minnesota’s legislators to close the gap for affordable hearing aids.
TREVOR: My name is Trevor Turner, and I’m the Public Policy Director for the Minnesota Council on Disability. The disability community is honored to have our governor and lieutenant governor with us today. Please welcome our governor, Tim Walz, and our lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan.
TIM: Just wanted to, first of all, thank Minnesota Council on Disabilities for making Minnesota a state where everyone is included, where equity, inclusion, and accessibility is the air that we literally breathe.
And the work that you do around putting together legislative priorities to ensure that those goals are translated into actionable items that do improve people’s lives, and making sure that the folks most impacted by the decisions we’ll make and have made are those at the table.
So, I can tell you that the input from the work you do today will inform our budget. I also can assure you, as you’re thinking about this, our state finances being in such a positive space that that budget surplus is meant to improve the lives of Minnesotans. And this organization is going to play a key role in making sure that we’re funding some of these programs in a manner that needs to be done.
I hope you’re viewing this legislative session as a transformational opportunity to improve the lives of all Minnesotans. I hope you’re viewing it as an opportunity to keep our promises as they’ve been made and have a voice that is truly reflective of all Minnesotans.
SPEAKER: Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan.
PEGGY: We are in a position where we have an opportunity this legislative session to do a lot of good work. And the Council is everywhere, and it is time for that work to just continue.
People need to know that we are in these places where decisions are being made to ensure that those with disabilities are part of policymaking. And I am so grateful for it. And as a Native American woman working in state government, I understand in many ways what it means to work in a system that wasn’t designed by us or for us and in many ways was created to keep us out of a lot of these systems, which is why it’s important to our administration and to me personally to make sure that state government works better for all Minnesotans, to make sure that everyone is at the table where decisions are being made.
So, continuing to work together across systems to break down these barriers, to know that there are things that are in place that are limiting people from living their full lives. No one should worry about how they’re going to get from point A to point B because there aren’t enough affordable or accessible options for transportation. No one should have to wonder if they’re going to be able to access a PCA during a shortage of health care professionals. And no one should have to worry about how they can afford to live in a home that offers the accommodations that they need to be able to live safely and comfortably each day.
So please do not let the conversations stop here. It matters tremendously that you connect with your legislators. As a recovering legislator, I can tell you that those personal conversations in community, those personal notes and emails, they really make a difference. And no one is a better advocate for the community than you.
So, we are with you. We want to continue to be partners in this work with you where we can have an inclusive and responsive Minnesota that better serves members of the disability community. And I’m really hopeful that we can get there, and I’m really hopeful that we can get there in continuing our work with MCD.
SPEAKER: Accessible Affordable Housing.
DAVID DIVELY: Hi, I’m David Fenley, the Minnesota Council on Disability’s ADA Director. I’m a white male with a mustache, short brown hair, a blue collared shirt, and a blurred background.
I’m here today with Justin Smith, citizen advocate, and Representative Liz Reyer. I’m happy to introduce our next segment, Accessible and Affordable Housing.
JUSTIN: Hi, my name is Justin Smith. I’m a white man in my mid-twenties wearing a burgundy shirt. I use a wheelchair to move around and a communication device to help me speak. I am in my apartment.
Two years ago, I started a quest to find an affordable wheelchair-accessible apartment and ran into too many barriers. First, there is simply a lack of accessible and affordable housing. Of the 5,055 current vacancies, there are two apartments that might be available and might work for someone using a wheelchair. Here’s the thing: I do not want to live in a group home or segregated apartment building where everyone has a disability.
I use self-directed services so that I can choose my own support staff and train them to help me with my individual needs. I want to be part of an inclusive community with people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. I choose to live independently so that I can write, work on my books and blog, go listen to live music at First Avenue, and watch lots of soccer matches. I choose to live independently, and I can if I have the accessible housing and supports I need.
Hello, Representative Reyer. Thank you for being here today to discuss this important policy change. What would this policy change ensure?
LIZ: Hello, everyone. I’m Representative Liz Reyer from Eagan. Policy change would ensure, if we’re using state dollars, such as housing infrastructure bonds to build housing in Minnesota, that we’re building housing that works for everyone who needs it. What it does is increase the level of accessibility that is already being built using these state dollars to include a roll-in shower. Currently, it’s only optional to include a roll-in shower, even under the most accessible building code.
JUSTIN: Can you tell me more about how this policy change came to your attention?
LIZ: Yes, I had heard from my constituents and members of the disability community that accessible and affordable housing was a major problem in Minnesota. This policy change was inspired by the work of disability advocate Judy Moe, who also happens to be a Council member of the Minnesota Council on Disability. Judy and her daughter, Raven, who uses a wheelchair, struggled to find accessible housing, which led them to be homeless for a short period of time.
Addressing affordability, as well as accessibility, is key to stabilizing housing in the community for people with disabilities. We have the resources in Minnesota. We just need the political will to make these important investments.
JUSTIN: We need the state to ensure that people with disability have the same opportunities and access to living in their own homes as any other settings. The brick walls I kept driving into and barriers I continue to face are wrong.
SPEAKER: Inclusive Higher Education.
TAMMY: Welcome, everyone. I’m Tammy Berberi, MCD Council member, and I’m happy to join this event today from my office at the University of Minnesota Morris, where I teach.
MARY: My name is Mary Hauff. I’m a white woman with dark brown hair. I’m wearing a slate blue sweater.
A national inclusive higher education movement began in 2008 to expand college options for students with intellectual disabilities. Students with intellectual disabilities who attend post-secondary education are more than twice as likely to be employed, live in homes of their own, and rely less on government supports, like SSI and Vocational Rehabilitation.
Widening the pathway to post-secondary education will ensure Minnesotans with intellectual disabilities have the opportunity to pursue their careers, live the life of their choice, and more fully contribute to their communities.
We are advocating for the passage of the Minnesota Inclusive Higher Education Act to support Minnesotans with an intellectual disability and make inclusive higher education a priority.
GAGE: Hi, my name is Gage Robinson. I am a white man with dark hair and a beard, wearing glasses and a burgundy shirt. It has always been my goal to go to college. School has always not been easy for me. In my younger years, I spent most of my day in a self-contained classroom. I love to learn. I just learn differently, and it may take me a little longer. I want to be seen as capable. I am. I want to keep learning. I am a lifelong learner. I am more than a disability. I am a son, a brother, a nephew, a friend, an athlete, a self-advocate, a public speaker, a non-profit leader, a woodworker, a prospective college student.
I am advocating for expanding inclusive college options for students with an intellectual disability like me. All Minnesotans with an intellectual disability are worth it.
Thank you.
JOHN: John Hoffman, Senate District 34.
Paul Wellstone said, “We all do better when we all do better.” “We all” means we all, right? We’ve got to be inclusive about our conversations. I know as the incoming chair of Human Services, I will guarantee you this: Intersectionality in conversations about how we’re doing, and what we’re doing, and how we’re including people with disabilities across the spectrum is going to be key and priority in my life. There’s an inclusivity in that. And I appreciate your words, and I appreciate you. So, thanks, Gage.
GAGE: Thank you.
SPEAKER: Home Care Workforce Shortage.
DAMON: Hi, my name is Damon Lievestad. I’m a white male with a beard, dressed in a gray shirt and Minnesota Gophers knit cap. I’m a 49-year-old mechanical engineer from Plymouth.
The shortage of home care workers is growing at a staggering rate, which has had a tremendous impact on those of us who rely on home care services. The time, energy, and difficulty of finding workers leaves people with disabilities feeling very vulnerable, burdensome, and – at times – without hope. This, in turn, inhibits our ability to have the security and stability in our lives that most people take for granted. Applying for employment, time with family and friends, or getting involved with our communities has been set aside because survival has become our primary task.
Recently, I lost a longtime home care worker. So, she found a better paying job with retirement benefits, so she can start planning for her future.
Today, I’m fine, but what about tomorrow, next week, or next year, when my parents are no longer able to care for me? Will I find enough help to continue to live at home and to work? Or will I need to enter a living facility?
I hope we can find a solution to make home care work a desirable career opportunity with sustainable wages and benefits to attract quality, reliable home care workers.
Thank you.
HOPE: Hello, I’m Hope Johnson, Council member of Minnesota Council on Disability. Today, we are having a conversation, based on Damon’s story, with Senator Carla Nelson. I am social work professional who manages county waiver programs and have seen this shortage take its toll on not only people with disabilities, but also for the personal care workers themselves.
SPEAKER: Senator Carla Nelson, District 24, Rochester.
CARLA: It is very clear—I think everyone in the legislature, I think many, many Minnesotans realize the challenges that our home health care settings are enduring. People that are so near and dear to us and who need that support, and the problem is, there just aren’t enough workers.
There’s a number of issues, but one of them is certainly not getting the number of workers needed to provide the care that we expect and that Minnesotans deserve. Often, it’s a time of life or death. We need to have those trained workers. And I think this need was only exacerbated by COVID-19 and, of course, it’s aftereffects.
I’m pushing for this significant investment in the workforce needed.
SPEAKER: Employment and Retention of Employees with Disabilities.
AARON: Hello, everyone. My name is Aaron Weikum. I’m a large man with brown hair, a brown beard, and a black shirt. I’m an independent autistic adult and autism advocate. And I also work as a Vocational Rehabilitation Services professional.
I’m here today to highlight the immense barriers Minnesotans with disabilities face finding and maintaining integrated, competitive employment. While I’m fortunate enough to be employed in a position I love, this has not always been the case. I’ve lived in poverty for most of my life. And I have experienced unlawful disability discrimination in education and employment environments. In some cases, it has been explicit and actionable, like being told by a prospective employer that an autistic person cannot do a specific job. Or being berated and called the “R” word by a supervisor. However, as with racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, in most instances, perpetrators go unpunished, and victims receive no redress.
About 85% of autistic Americans are not engaged in competitive employment. And most who are, are underemployed, working part-time with limited benefits, or otherwise being paid less than similarly-situated neurotypical employees with equivalent qualifications.
Connect 700, the state’s initiative to hire and retain public servants like me, has not been properly implemented. And in the private sector where most Minnesota jobs are found, there is no incentive to hire and retain workers with disabilities.
On the contrary, most employers systematically screen out or pass over applicants with disabilities despite this being illegal and costing them highly qualified talent. Survey data suggests that employees with disabilities, particularly those on the autism spectrum, are more loyal and productive than any other worker demographic. Many of us have specialized skills and passions that neurotypical people lack. And if properly utilized, we could literally expand the boundaries of human knowledge and fix some of society’s most pernicious problems. All of this is to say that ignoring your autistic family, friends, and fellow citizens is not just to our detriment, but to everyone else’s.
Thank you.
The main item in the legislative agenda this upcoming session concerning disability and employment is about the Connect 700 program. For those who are not familiar, this program allows job applicants to state positions who have communications impacting disabilities that prevent them from participating in the traditional interview-based selection process up to 700 hours of on-the-job experience to demonstrate their qualifications and their ability to do the job.
SPEAKER: Representative Mike Freiberg, District 45B, Golden Valley.
MIKE: At the DFL Caucus, we unanimously supported the inclusion of House File 2017. In there, it includes lots of really important provisions. So, I know it would implement and codify several policies recommended by the advisory task force on state employment and retention of employees with disabilities. I think these are all really important goals. I think it’s really important to get people with disabilities into the workforce and was glad to support the bill.
AARON: Would you support crediting that up to 700 hours that has already been worked by the participant toward the regular probationary period for state employees?
MIKE: Yeah, and if a disabled employee can do the job and is hired to the position, then they should receive credit for the time worked, even though it was probationary.
AARON: Thank you.
SPEAKER: MA-EPD: Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities.
MYRNA: Hello, everyone. I am Myrna Petersen, a retired educator and an MCD Council member from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, representing Region 3. I’m a white woman with short, dark brown hair wearing a bright red cape. I respond to the pronouns of she/her. I have limited use of just one arm and hand to operate my power wheelchair as an outcome of a spinal cord injury 27 1/2 years ago.
JILLIAN: Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Jillian Nelson. I am the Community Resource and Policy Advocate at the Autism Society of Minnesota. I’m a white woman with teal hair in a bun, wearing a black sweater. I am also an autistic adult, and my pronouns are she/her.
This is a program that allows individuals with disabilities to continue to access MA for services and support after their career paths take them away from income-based qualifications. Participants pay a monthly premium based on their wages. And this program has allowed so many people to achieve their career goals and still get the important support they need.
However, this program hasn’t been adjusted since it was first put in place, and we’re working as part of a team on reforming a few pieces of it to improve access for our whole community.
I am a newer participant to this program, just in the last two years. I’ve always believed that if I worked, I wouldn’t qualify for benefits. And because of this, I went from crisis to crisis and really struggled maintaining stability and a stable living situation. When I got the support I desperately needed, the crisis stopped. And I was able to show up to work every day and put my best foot forward.
People with disabilities often make lower wages. The cost of living increases and wages have not grown proportionately, yet the percentages for premiums of MA-EPD have stayed the same. And this means that every year, my purchasing power decreases, and yet I still have this commitment to pay if I want to remain stable. One of the pieces we’re asking for in reform is to lower the premiums for individuals that are within income limits that make that financial stability more precarious.
ROB: Hi, my name is Rob Wudlick. I think I’m blonde, a white guy, short beard, with a wood background wearing a light-colored orange shirt. I’m a quadriplegic. I had a spinal cord injury 11 1/2 ago. I’m a C4 quad, which means I have a hard time moving my arms, and hands, and legs, and body. I’m in a power wheelchair. I require almost 24-hour assistance seven days a week.
I currently work at the University of Minnesota in clinical trial project management helping advance spinal cord injury research. And I am starting my own company. Right now, we’re limited with a $20,000 asset limit. With $20,000 and with the job that I have, I want to be able to contribute back to my community. I want to be able to continue to work and be successful at it just like everyone else and have the same opportunities.
This program really has been a great asset, but there’s—since 1999, when it was incepted, it really hasn’t been changed. What’s a down payment on a house? Well, we can’t really save up to afford even a down payment, so we’re kind of limited on a lot of things. It’s about building stability and equal opportunity to get us to the starting line and getting us out of the basement. Our goal is to kind of work the session and create some reasonable solutions to help improve employee-paid benefits for people with disabilities.
Thank you, and here’s my good friend, Brittanie.
BRITTANIE: Thank you, Rob. Hello, everyone. My name is Brittanie Wilson. I am the Equity and Justice Director at the Arc Minnesota. My pronouns are she/her. And for a visual description, I am a Black and Hispanic woman. I have shoulder length, dark brown, curly hair. I’m wearing a lavender sweater and disability empowerment themed earrings.
I am honored to be here today to speak about MA-EPD, a program that I have been on for ten years. I was born with a joint and muscle condition and navigate life using an electric wheelchair. And like so many others in my community, I grew up with an understanding that if I made too much money, I would be kicked off of Social Security and state services that I need to live, including the CADI Waiver and PCAs.
Because of this, upon graduating college, I didn’t look for a job like all of my other peers. About two years later, I learned about the Disability Hub and made a call that would change my life. I learned that on MA-EPD, I could work while earning a competitive wage and still get the help that I needed. I was informed that I also needed to apply for Medicare, and I was accepted into both programs.
I started working, and as I grew professionally, my wages increased. One day, I received a letter explaining that I would need to start covering my Medicare Part B premiums in addition to my MA-EPD premium. At this point, I was barely making it by, and everything additional that I made went to my health care premiums.
Another two years of successful employment went by, and I was notified that I would need to start paying for my Medicare Part A premium. There was no way that I could pay over $700 a month for my health insurance and still be able to afford the basic things, like rent and food.
It became clear to me that I would be forced to quit my job and apply for all of the services that I had been working so hard to stay off of. When I called my county financial worker and told them my story, they said that there was nothing that they could do and offered to give me food bank information. I was so frustrated and, most importantly, terrified for my future.
But I refused to give up because working meant everything to me. I kept going up the chain of command, telling my story, and begging for someone to hear me and to understand the position I was in. After a few weeks and many phone calls, I finally got to someone who had the power to make a decision, and their decision allowed me to stay on MA-EPD without Medicare, so I could keep working.
I’m not sure how many Minnesotans have been put in a similar situation who weren’t successful in solving that problem. But no Minnesotan should ever be forced to choose between working and relying on the system for health care. I hope that we can work together and gain your support for MA-EPD reform. MA-EPD is such an important program because it allows people with disabilities to work and live just like everyone else.
It’s been a little over 20 years since this incredible legislation was passed, and many disabled Minnesotans have the benefit of thriving because of it. Twenty years has also allowed us to find the gaps and barriers that stop people from living their full potential, that make people choose between the impossible. Reform is overdue.
Thank you, Senators Abeler and Hoffman for being here. I would like to turn it over to you now for your thoughts on this important reform.
JOHN: Thank you, Brittanie. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Jillian. I’m a little upset to hear of just the barriers that exist within our system, and so bear with me.
I’m John Hoffman. I represent Senate District 34, Coon Rapids, Champlin, Brooklyn Park, Dayton, and Rogers, Minnesota. I’m wearing a gray suit with a white shirt. I got brown hair. I think it’s still brown.
This whole thing, that’s a prime example of something that we need to finish this year. Brittanie, there are so many gaps, and you just shot them out there. And Rob and Jillian too. We need to fix this.
SPEAKER: Senator Jim Abeler, District 35, Anoka.
JIM: It makes no sense at all to not have everybody work the most they possibly can to have everything good happen to them. The Senate has, on a bipartisan basis, been supportive of that. We have to fix this.
JOHN: I just met with Bentley from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. To me, this is a workforce issue, period. We desperately need people working in the state of Minnesota. The unemployment rate’s low. Companies, major companies, anybody, they’re saying, bring us the workers, but if we’re putting barriers up that exist because of some old system, guess what? It’s time for reform.
SPEAKER: Minnesota Council on Disability’s 2023 Legislative Forum. Wrap Up with Trevor Turner, MCD Public Policy Director.
TREVOR: Thank you, everyone, for coming to our legislative forum in the audience today. I would like to thank all of our advocates, our legislators, the governor, lieutenant governor, our Council members, and the MCD staff for putting this on.
SPEAKER: Thank you for joining us. To access the event survey or learn how to be a Council member, scan the QR code on screen or go to mn.gov/mcd/2023forum.