Policymakers at the State Legislature passed a promising bill this session that will accelerate the economic engines that fuel inclusive growth and create jobs, while building generational wealth for people in marginalized communities.
Are You A Racial Equity Navigator?
Tawanna Black
By Tawanna A. Black, Founder & CEO
Have you had to navigate any potholes lately? Perhaps you even took a drive down a winding road and had to navigate tree branches that had fallen after our early spring snow fall, while also looking above to ensure that low hanging branches were not scraping the roof of your car…WATCH OUT! Don’t swerve too far to the right or you’ll hit the car in the next lane, and don’t you see the officer sitting in the parking lot up the street, he’ll give you a ticket if you’re not careful!
Navigating the Potholes of Racism
As I drove to the office this week, and navigated the terrain, I was reminded not only of our work helping employers dismantle systemic racism, but of the experience of Black women, pushing hard to achieve our personal dreams, the dreams of our families, and the dreams of our communities, while navigating the visible and invisible pot holes of racism, sexism, conscious and unconscious bias rooted in capitalism that often jump up out of nowhere to force us into new lanes, vehicles, and opportunities.
I continued the drive and thought about how important it is to have other drivers who are not only looking out for themselves, and the obstacles in their own lanes, but also watching my lane, and the obstacles that might cause me to slow down, speed up, pick up a passenger or two, or change lanes all together. As a large recycling truck who had much greater visibility than I did in my vehicle pulled alongside me, I began to consider how much I value those fellow drivers who have a heightened consciousness about the limited view their fellow drivers have of upcoming obstacles…how much I value those drivers who put their bright lights on so that others can see challenges up ahead, and those who bring their plows out to clear debris so that others can keep moving.
In this journey of building racially equitable and inclusive regional economies, we need each other, the same way we need each other as we navigate snowy, pothole, and tree branch filled roads and sidewalks. While policies and practices are important, dismantling systems of oppression and building anti-racist organizations require much, much more.
Share Your Resources
If you have information, power, money, or assets, information, or knowledge it must be shared with people in a position to create change, who need those resources to accelerate progress. Relationships must be kindled, curated, and deepened across race, sector, neighborhood, and class in meaningful ways that transform our very way of being. Our formal and informal decision-making must begin to change to invite others to not only provide input, but to make the decisions, distributing power and accountability. And we must begin to interrogate our beliefs about one another that have undergirded generations of biased and racist policies and practices, actions, and inactions. We must ask ourselves what is true, and how know it’s true; why we believe what we believe about people who live, work, and play differently than we do, and how we can challenge our assumptions when making decisions that impact people’s lives, communities, and livelihoods.
Stay on the Journey
These four conditions of systems change: Resource Flows, Relationships & Connections, Power Dynamics, and Mental Models, have a significantly greater impact on our everyday interactions than policies and practices, just as the fallen tree branches and the actions of our neighbors have on our ability to safely navigate sidewalks and roads after a winter storm on an early spring day. The potholes of racism won’t go away on their own. It’s going to take ALL OF US. I hope we can count on you to stay on the journey!
In solidarity~
Tawanna
The Time is Now for Racial Equity Impact Notes in Minnesota
Betsy Ohrn
By Betsy Ohrn, Director of Reserch
At the Center for Economic Inclusion (the Center), we are committed to redesigning policies, practices, and structures that have not only extracted wealth from, but have also prohibited the building and passing on of wealth or assets for Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian communities. This commitment has led us to become an active leader at the state and local policy level.
As different organizations and individuals propose and champion new bills, it is challenging to assess whether they will have a positive impact on economic inclusion and the lives of people across Minnesota.
In order to better understand these impacts, the Center has developed Racial Equity Impact Notes (REIN). Similar to the fiscal notes that state legislators receive right now prior to voting on new bills (to understand the financial impact of any proposed legislation), these notes assess the potential impact of legislation on racial equity.
What are Racial Equity Impact Notes?
REIN employs a similar model to the fiscal notes—they assess the potential impact of legislation on racial equity. REIN will employ a methodology to evaluate the intended and unintended consequences of policies, investments, and programs.
These notes could have had a great impact on certain rent control policies, for instance. Though well-intentioned, this legislation may have made racial inequities worse in some ways—may have even contributed to housing inequities due to the way income requirements and benefit expansions can lead to benefits cliffs which often leave families worse off. Racial Equity Impact Notes could have helped analyze rent control legislation to ensure that lawmakers find the right solutions to fix imbalances.
REIN In Action
So, what might these Racial Equity Notes look like in action? When assessing the impact of a Child Tax Credit (CTC) on Black, Indigenous, Latine and Asian families, for instance, lawmakers would be able to analyze the bill with a certain mindset specifically on racial equity. Such an analysis would show that a CTC could impact 463,000 children, almost 38% of children in the state. It would cut child poverty in Minnesota by 25 percent and lift 22,500 children out of poverty.i This would have an even larger impact on children that are Burmese, Mexican, Hmong, and African American. (add citations)
Bipartisan National Support
There are several states or localities across the political spectrum that have used some variation of REIN. For instance, Iowa, Colorado, Washington D.C., etc. are currently using impact notes. Iowa measures their criminal justice efforts, D.C. analyzes nearly all proposed legislation, and Colorado examines up to 20 bills per year all using some variation of racial equity impact notes.
After being introduced in the 2021 legislative session but not moving forward, the Center seized the initiative and created an unofficial working group, comprised of representatives from racially diverse communities and the Legislative Budget Office. This group reviewed national research on impact notes and tested methodology in two case studies to produce data for impact notes. Through their work, REIN was re-introduced 2023 with a focus on economic and workforce development.
Economic inclusion and prosperity require investing in Black, Indigenous, Latine and Asian owned businesses and workers, making this initial focus for REIN critical to Minnesota's economic growth and prosperity.
Help make this legislation a reality!
Find and call your legislators. To make racial equity a systemic part of policymaking, we need Racial Equity Impact Notes. Let them know you support HF 2821 that enhances economic inclusion and racial equity in Minnesota!
Download the Center’s 2023 Policy Agenda
Read the 2023 Racial Equity Impact Notes Proposal
Our $65 Billion Opportunity: How Investments in Racial Equity and Inclusion Will Impact Communities and the Economy for the Better
Isaac Russell
By Isaac Russell, Director of Public Policy
On January 24, Governor Tim Walz made national headlines with his proposed $65 billion 2024-2025 fiscal biennium budget, the largest in Minnesota history. The Governor understands that addressing the state’s economic, social, and infrastructure needs on this scale requires big money. The state’s unprecedented $17.6 billion budget surplus will also come into play.
This is our moment -- Minnesota’s once-in-a-generation opportunity to chart and build a racially equitable, inclusive, and sustainable path forward that has rippling impacts on the state’s families and economy for years to come.
Policy Leadership
While I’ve led the Center’s public policy for just over a year, the organization has had a strong presence at the Capitol for nearly five. Bold social and economic policy change requires tenacity, strategy, and partnerships.
What I can also tell you is this: There has never been a better time for initiatives that have a strong racial equity component than right now. And with this unprecedented amount of money, I urge organizations that are doing racial equity work to offer solutions that are more systemic in nature.
New Day Dawned
As I walk the capitol corridors, the change in the air is palpable. It’s a powerful thing to witness leadership of color in both chambers shaping and passing legislation that prioritizes the experiences of and impacts to Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian communities in new ways.
Less than two months into session, this momentum has already resulted in significant policy change. The CROWN Act signed into state law. Juneteenth designated as a state holiday. Plus, there are proposals to establish new offices that prioritize Black health and missing and murdered Black women.
This is what progress and momentum looks like. My responsibility to lobby for the Center’s public policy priorities – Racial Equity Impact Notes, $10 million direct appropriation for job creation, and increasing the state procurement and preference equity cap -- is made easier by the partnerships there now that weren’t in previous years. We are strengthening relationships and forging new ones.
There is no time to waste. Let’s get into it.
$65M Budget Highlights
Here’s a budget breakdown of what I see as key investments towards a more racially equitable and inclusive state.
1. Investments focused on employment, wages, and wealth-building in Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian communities. This includes targeted investments in small business supports, workforce programs, and homeownership that recognize and address historic and systemic disinvestments and barriers that have hindered Minnesota’s economic competitiveness.
2. Investments in businesses along commercial corridors. Examples: the $85 million proposed funding to the Mainstreet Revitalization Fund along with funding for Small Business Navigation Program, Small Business Development Centers, and the Small Business Partnerships Program are critically important to creating jobs, building wealth, and growing our economy.
Through these programs, we hope to see increased coaching, access to flexible capital like forgivable loans, and small business consulting. We also need to ensure these programs have a strong racial-equity orientation with significant outreach to minority-owned businesses.
3. Advancing racial equity in Minnesota’s workforce. The Governor’s budget aims to increase family sustaining wages for Black, Brown, and Indigenous workers by recommending $60 million in training and employment services for workers traditionally overlooked.
4. Emphasis on developing workforce opportunities for family sustaining wages, which is one of the metrics we use to evaluate if our economy is racially equitable and inclusive.
5. Proposed funding for increasing home-care workers’ rates. This action would provide an increase to over 20,000 workers statewide. We define a living wage as a worker who earns at least $39,795 annually, of which only 49 and 44 percent of Black and Hispanic workers earn, respectively.
6. Expansion of the Child Tax and Dependent Credit. Estimates show this would help roughly 100,000 households with child-care costs. Families that earn less than $200,000 could get up to $4,000 if they have one child, $8,000 for two, and $10,500 for three. A child tax credit for lower-income Minnesotans could give families $1,000 per child, up to $3,000.
7. $1 billion expansion of housing funding. This amount includes funding for rental assistance, workforce and affordable homeownership, assistance to those facing homelessness, and workforce housing.
While $1 billion is a large number, even more is needed. The Twin Cities alone faces a housing shortage of at least 45,000 affordable units. This number does not take into account the struggles of families trying to purchase their first home. While there is some funding for the construction of affordable homes and home down-payment assistance, we know more resources are needed.
Committing to the Long Term
While the Governor’s budget makes historic investments in Minnesota and includes a strong equity component, we know that racial equity and inclusive growth will require sustained efforts across time and at different levels of government.
It will mean strong leadership to carry the work forward beyond the next two years and from one administration to the next to keep Minnesota moving forward for all Minnesotans.
We can do it.