The Minnesota State Senate has passed legislation that would be harmful to nonprofits, specifically those whose annual revenue is 50% or more state funding. The legislation excludes hospitals, nursing and assisted living facilities, Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare payments, and grants of general obligation bond proceeds for capital projects.
Among other things, this legislation would impose a salary cap of $127,000 on employees of these nonprofits, prohibit state agency employees from serving on these nonprofits’ boards, mandate a financial audit for these nonprofits, and require these nonprofits to run background checks on all board members and submit them to the state.
The legislature has named 10 members to a conference committee, which will determine if these provisions are included in the bill that they send to Governor Tim Walz to become law. It is very important that these members, called conferees, hear clearly from our sector that these provisions cannot be included in that final bill.
Action Alert: Add your important voice to the growing opposition by emailing the conferees.
Considerations for your email or conversation:
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Be clear that you are asking these legislators to exclude from the conference report the nonprofit oversight pieces of the Senate’s State Government omnibus bill. Tell them these provisions are harmful and unnecessary.
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If your organization would be impacted if this legislation becomes law, describe the harm that would result. Perhaps you would lose a great board member, need to go through a pricey and labor-intensive audit, or have a difficult time recruiting for certain positions due to the salary cap.
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It is much better to send something very brief than plan to construct the most beautiful email in the world and end up sending nothing. Short and to-the-point is very appropriate!
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If you’d like detailed information about the bill, see MCN’s assessment in “Duplicative and unnecessary government oversight of nonprofits”
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Share your email and any substantive responses with MCN’s policy team at mellis@minnesotanonprofits.org Seeing your words helps us hone our understanding of the implications of this legislation!