Please sign onto this letter from the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota Budget Project urging Minnesota’s members of Congress to reject the harmful budget reconciliation proposals being debated now.

Minnesota nonprofits partner with government to provide critical services to Minnesotans but they cannot make up the difference if Congress makes these massive cuts to federal public services.

Right now, Congressional committees are drafting proposals that would make deep cuts to affordable health care through Medicaid , food assistance through SNAP, and block our refugee and immigrant neighbors from accessing basic needs services.

These and other harmful budget cuts would be used to pay for tax cuts that give the biggest benefits to the most fortunate.

Add your organization to the letter. We need to remind our Congressional representatives that Minnesotans value the public services that ensure all of us can afford food, health care, and other basics we need to build the lives we want for ourselves and our families.  

Join us – sign onto this letter to our Minnesota delegation today.

LETTER TEXT

Dear Honorable Members of the Minnesota Congressional Delegation:

The undersigned nonprofit organizations are extremely concerned that Congressional budget plans would dramatically cut essential public services and increase hardship in our communities. We want to ensure that everyday Minnesotans can afford basic needs, like food, housing, and health care, and build the lives they want for themselves and their families.  

We ask you to protect Minnesotans by opposing any federal budget and tax package that makes deep cuts to basic needs services and the revenues needed to fund them.

Minnesota nonprofits provide real solutions that collectively drive toward our shared goals of a healthy, cooperative, and just society, often partnering with the public sector to provide critical services to Minnesotans.  

Minnesota’s nonprofit sector cannot make up the difference from the dramatic proposed cuts to basic needs services. While nonprofits have demonstrated ingenuity in response to the continued increase in demand for their services, Minnesota nonprofits are reporting a stark increase in operational costs and financial instability. Congressional budget proposals would mean many nonprofits would see greater demand for their services while, at the same time, those budget proposals would almost certainly reduce funding to nonprofits from federal, state, or local government partners. This would create intense pressures on Minnesota nonprofits when funding coming from individuals, private foundations, and corporate giving is also declining, and lead to a shortage or absence of critical services in our communities.

In particular, we are deeply concerned about the following threats to Minnesotans’ ability to meet their basic needs:

• Cuts to Medicaid would put the health and financial well-being of more than one million Minnesotans, as well as our health care system, at risk. Through Medicaid, people with disabilities, older adults, children, families, and low-income individuals in our communities can get the medical care they need. Neither states, health care providers, nonprofits, nor families could make up the difference from the deep cuts being proposed.  
  

• Cuts to SNAP and other nutrition services would mean more Minnesotans would go hungry and pay more when buying their groceries. SNAP reduces health care costs, improves educational outcomes for children, and boosts local economies, especially during economic downturns. Food shelves cannot make up the difference – for every meal a they provide, SNAP offers nine.

• Proposals that block our refugee and immigrant neighbors from accessing basic needs services would create hardship and weaken our communities. People with the courage and tenacity to move to this country for a better life for themselves and their families would bear the brunt of many of the budget plan’s proposals. Immigrants play a vital role in our economy and strengthen communities in every part of Minnesota. We also are deeply concerned that it appears that funding cuts outlined in budget plans would be used to fund a broad program of mass deportation.

• These and other harmful budget cuts would be used to pay for tax cuts that give the biggest benefits to the most fortunate. Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and enacting further corporate tax cuts would double down on policies that largely failed to deliver economic benefits to everyday Americans. These, as well as proposals to exempt tips, overtime, and Social Security income from taxes, would instead provide the biggest tax cuts to high-income households and corporations. We ask you to focus on everyday Minnesotans in tax policy decisions, rather than expensive, large tax cuts for the wealthiest.  

We urge you instead to take a different path. Put everyday Minnesotans first by protecting and strengthening basic needs services that our families and neighbors count on to get by, and ensure the country has the revenues needed to fund crucial public services that contribute to thriving communities in every corner of our state.  

Nonprofits are powerful forces for good across our state, but Congress’ proposed cuts would create a level of need that no sector—no matter how dedicated—could absorb.

Sincerely,

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Minnesota Budget Project, and the undersigned organizations:

[List of signatories]