Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka and Minnesota conservatives put out their budget plan this week. And it’s clear that their plan would hurt Minnesota’s COVID recovery.

Here’s why:

Senator Paul Gazelka and Minnesota conservatives want to cut funding for the programs and people that are most important to our recovery. 

Underfunding our schools

Conservatives’ plan underfunds our schools. That might cause schools to have to cut their resources and staff. And that’s the last thing our students and teachers need right now. What our schools really need is investments so that students can recover and catch up on learning. To make matters worse, conservatives want to send our taxpayer dollars to private schools. And that would only make it harder for every child in Minnesota to get a high-quality education.

No support for working families

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how important it is for working families to have the ability to care for themselves and their loved ones. But conservatives’ plan doesn’t include needed support for working families like paid family leave. 

Cutting support for frontline workers

Minnesota’s epidemiologists, health care workers, and other critical frontline workers have been working overtime to help get us through this pandemic. But conservatives’ plan slashes funding for these frontline workers. That would make it a lot harder for us to recover from the pandemic and keep our communities safe and healthy in the future.

Minnesotans deserve better

From the start of the pandemic, Senator Paul Gazelka and Minnesota conservatives have been failing Minnesotans. They’ve criticized public health measures and wanted to put more people in harm’s way. And now they want to slash programs and make it harder for us to rebuild from the pandemic. 

This is the wrong approach. We cannot cut our way through this pandemic. 

In order to recover and emerge stronger than before, we need to make investments in education, health care, and our economy. And we need to ask large, profitable corporations and the wealthiest Minnesotans to pay their fair share so our students and working families have a fair shot.