Fight Back! interviewed Linden Gawboy, a leader of the Welfare Rights Committee and the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout on the implications of the May 5 Minnesota Supreme Court decision limiting Governor Pawlenty’s power of unallotment. Gawboy has been involved with fighting for low-income people at the Minnesota state legislature for over 15 years.

Fight Back!: Could you give us some background on the Supreme Court ruling on Pawlenty’s allotments?

Linden Gawboy: In the spring of 2009, the legislature sent Governor Pawlenty spending bills, as usual. Then they sent him a tax bill to pay for the spending. Pawlenty vetoed the tax bill.

Since that left the state without enough money, Pawlenty just randomly romped through the entire state budget, picking programs to eliminate so the budget would be in balance, taxing and spending-wise.

No governor had done that before. Pawlenty said he was using ‘unallotment,’ a power that the governor does have in certain situations, but it has never been used like this.

Fortunately, Legal Aid filed a lawsuit against the crazy actions of the governor. The lawsuit basically said that the governor acted illegally in his unallotments. Today, the state Supreme Court agreed.

On a side note, the Welfare Rights Committee waited for weeks while all the big-money forces who lost big bucks, like the hospitals, did nothing – they didn’t have the courage to file a lawsuit against the governor. It took lawyers advocating for the poor to defend a small nutrition program for the poor to do the deed.

Fight Back!: How does the ruling change the political situation at the legislature?

Gawboy: It puts the Democrats (DFL) in a complicated position. They have been pussy-footing around the fact that the state will always be in a mess until there is there is tax system that makes the rich pay more. As we tried to pass our foreclosure moratorium it became clearer to everyone that a lot DFL senators and representatives represent the banks and big corporations.

With the power of unallotment limited or gone, the Republicans have lost the power to dictate the state budget. So their overall position is much weaker. With the power of unallotment, Pawlenty thought he was a king. Now he is just pathetic.

Today’s decision changes all the budget numbers, adding $2.7 billion to the state deficit. Already, the budget proposals out there balance the state budget on the backs of poor and working people. Leaving the governor’s and the Republicans’ whacked-out proposals aside, the Democrats have already proposed terrible cuts. They are stealing nearly $30 million from welfare funds, slashing programs for the mentally ill and turning nursing homes into death camps.

Fight Back!: What do you think could happen in the months ahead?

Gawboy: The legislative session ends May 17. Governor Pawlenty will be presented with spending bills and a tax bill. Ideally, the Democrats will seize this opportunity to solve the budget without the cuts and by taxing the rich – that’s unlikely. Most likely, the governor will veto the bills. If the legislature doesn’t choose to override the vetoes, then the state will head into a ‘government shutdown’ on July 1. But, after May 17, the governor – and only the governor – could call the legislature back into a so-called special session.

But, in any case, the main thing is, everything from our past experience shows that poor and working people will be sold out. We have to fight back. The Welfare Rights Committee and the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout will be planning actions. We know that Governor Pawlenty got his wings clipped. We know that many of the dems ‘say’ they are on our side. It’s time to fight. At this point, we have nothing to lose.

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St Paul, MN – “One year ago, our families in poverty were slashed to the bone by Governor Pawlenty and company in order to protect tax breaks to the richest in this state,” said Kim Hosmer, of the Welfare Rights Committee to protesters assembled in front of the governor’s mansion, Aug. 3. The protest marked the one-year anniversary of some of the worst welfare cuts in Minnesota history.

A statement form the Welfare Rights Committee noted, “Last year politicians balanced the budget on the backs of the poor by cutting the MFIP (Minnesota’s welfare program) grants by $125 if we have a disabled member in their household. They also cut another $50 out of the MFIP grant if we lived in Section 8 or public housing. There were many other attacks that were put out on our families: like childcare cuts, health care cuts and co-pays and attacks on us trying to get an education.”

This year the Welfare Rights Committee pushed legislation to undo some of the worst cuts and raise taxes on corporations. Sharp conflicts between the Democrats and the Republicans led to a legislative stalemate. While it is possible that a special session of the legislature could be called, it is unlikely.

Hosmer vows that the Welfare Rights Committee will continue the battle. “ Poor and working people will not take these attacks against them. We will continue to unite as one and defeat the rich man’s war on poor and working people!” she declared.

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St. Paul, MN – Low-income families spoke out April 15 against the state politicians who are raiding federal welfare (TANF) funds to balance the budget. The tax day protest was organized by the Twin Cities-based Welfare Rights Committee.

After the reading a statement on the steps of the State Capitol building that blasted moves to hijack federal welfare dollars, WRC members wound through the capitol complex holding a long banner reading, “Stop balancing the budget on the backs of the poor! Tax the rich.” Governor Pawlenty, House Speaker Kelliher and Senate Majority Leader Pogemiller had piggy banks delivered to their offices that showed the disparity between what the rich are getting out of this session, vs. what the poor are be losing.

The TANF fund is a block grant from the federal government that is supposed to be used for welfare for poor families. “It is a crime to take poor children’s money and dump it into the state’s general fund,” said Deb Konechne, of the WRC.

A deal between Republican Governor Pawlenty and the Democratic Party legislative leaders to divert TANF dollars was reached early on. The Welfare Rights Committee will continue to fight this attack on the poor in coming

#StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #WelfareRightsCommittee #GovernorPawlenty #TANF

No contract talks are scheduled between Metropolitan Council and the striking members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, whose ranks include bus and light rail drivers, cleaners, maintenance and clerical workers. The main issue is health care. In the months leading up to the strike, Governor Pawlenty and his appointed head of the Met Council, Peter Bell, made it clear that they wanted big concessions from the transit workers – in fact, the Met Council wanted to stop paying for retiree's health care.

Speaking to the rally, Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800, blasted the Pawlenty administration for making the health care crisis for Minnesota working people worse.

After the rally, more than 300 of the workers marched to the governor's office inside the capitol building. Overflowing the governor's reception area, many slammed Pawlenty, chanting, “Shame on you!” In an attempt to keep more bus drivers from entering the office area, the head of the governor's security detail and a member of the state patrol attacked a transit worker. No one was intimidated.

#Labor #News #GovernorPawlenty #BusStrike #AmalgamatedTransitUnionLocal1005

“Kicking MFIP parents out of education, by mandating 20 hours per week in order to be allowed to go to school. In this job market, that slams the door on education.

Cutting family welfare grants by $125 per month while we are coping with a disabled family member. When a person is on SSI, that money, by federal law, only to be used by the disabled person. This cut either forces SSI fraud, or else it forces disabled people to see the rest of the family suffer because of them.

Cutting family welfare grants by $100 if the family is in subsidized housing. This cut is hard on the family, hard on the landlord, hard on housing stock and hard on every low-income person searching for housing.

Stealing welfare money. The Governor calls it “refinancing” the federal TANF block grant, but we say taking $50 to $56 MILLION per biennium is outright stealing from the poorest of the poor.”

Deb Konechne of the Welfare Rights Committee noted, “Considering that welfare grants have not increased since 1986 and a family of 3 lives on a $532 cash MFIP grant, WRC considers the governor’s proposed cuts unconscionable.”

The Welfare Rights Committee initiated bills that directly counter Governor Pawlenty’s schemes. The bills (SF480 and SF481) put a two-year moratorium on the welfare time limit in these troubled economic times, get rid of the current $50 ‘housing penalty,’ eliminate the family cap (in which a families cash grant does not go up when a baby is born) and make it so more low-income people can qualify for food stamps.

Linden Gawboy, of the Welfare Rights Committee stated, “The federal stimulus package makes it clear that now is not the time to make cuts to basic survival needs for the poor. The governor’s proposal is showing itself to be even more clueless and out of touch. The wealthy have run this country into the ground, despite benefiting from years of tax breaks. It is about time they took a turn at ‘sharing the pain.’”

#StPaulMN #SaintPaulMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #News #WelfareRightsCommittee #GovernorPawlenty #TaxTheRich