Paul Thissen Minnesota Distiet 618 peel House of _ Representatives January 4, 2016 ‘The Honorable Mark Dayton, 116 Veterans Service Building 20 W 12th Street St Paul, MN SS155 Dear Governor Dayton: ‘As you well know, the unacceptable level of disparities in opportunities and outcomes for people ‘of color in Minnesota is under consideration a atopic to be discussed as part ofa potential Special Session. [am pleased this discussion is happening because these disparities have become an emergency which threatens the health cf our state both in the short-term and in the long-term, yet we have not responded in a way proportional tothe crisis, ‘As par of that discussion, hope we will considera straightforward structural reform which | believe will help us asa legislature focus ou attention on the disparities in socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, and geography in the future. Senator Jeff Hayden and 1 introduced House File 2198 last spring, which call for the preparation of “disparities impact "for selected bills that we consider a the Capitol. The disparities impact note would be an analysis (similar in concept toa fiscal note) of whether propased legislation would increase oF decrease the differences in economic, employment, health, education, or public safety outcomes ‘between the state population as a whole ard subgroups of the population defined by socioeconomic status, race, ehnicity, age, gender, disability, and geography. In addition to the benefit of actually understanding the sometimes unintended impact of our policy decisions on a variety of communites, the legislation will enhance the quality ofthe information we receive regarding the status ofall Minnesotans in our state, which itself will lead to better policy outcomes. Others are moving ahead with such ideas including our own Minnesota Department of Health as well as the City of Seattle, Lam sure there will be many other ideas te address racial disparities in our state, and we should ‘move forward on the most pressing and immediate in a Special Session. We also need to acknowledge, however, that we will not be able to sufficiently address the crisis in a single Special Session, Indced, we should make responding tothe racial disparities in our state atop priority forthe upcoming regular session, We havea significant budget surplus for a non-budget year. Pd suggest making a commitment to use a reasonable portion ofthat surplus along with bonding resources to make real and 127 Fomor 8 Monson, MN S419 ‘State ie Bulg oe en, Be Marin ther King J Bs. 6 Pau, enact 515-1258 206.55 & PC ES 296505 El ep pau snend hows“substantial progress towards closing these disparities, In addition, we should consider policy ‘steps like restoring the right to vote to individuals that have served their full prison sentences; addressing the disproportionate number of children of color in our schools being labeled as ‘students with emotional or behavioral problems; and taking additional steps to make sure our teachers, governmeat employees, and government contractors reflect the diversity of our state “Taken together, I believe these proposals would make a meaningful difference in the lives of| Minnesotans of coler and would show that we are serious about closing the disparities that ‘continue to plague cur state. Tam personally committed to doing just that, and I look forward to ‘continuing this discussion inthe weeks and months ahead with you and your administration as well as with legislative leaders and my colleagues on the legislative working group. ‘Thank you for your consideration and for your leadership on these important issues. Sincerely, Rep. Paul Thissen House DL Leader ‘ee: Speaker Daudt Majority Leader Bak Sen, Bobby Joe Champion Rep. Jim Kmoblach