March 2025 APG Column
Carolyn Treadway
My priority in writing this column is to keep locals informed of what is happening in the Minnesota
Legislature. Currently, however, most legislation is still tied up in committee, awaiting the big budgetary
fights that are bound to happen. In the meantime, I’ll focus on how federal government action could
affect all of us Minnesotans.
There’s so much “noise” coming out of Washington and the Department of Government Efficiency
(DOGE) that it’s hard to know what the full impact of all the cuts that Republican lawmakers are moving
forward in Washington will have on Minnesotans.
We know that shutting down the USAID Food for Peace program will cost Minnesota farmers $70 million
in sales of corn, soybeans, and other commodities.
We know that federal funding is approximately 70% of Medicaid funding. The rest comes from states.
So, if federal Medicaid funding pulls back, states must either find the extra money through higher taxes
or make some difficult choices. Therefore, we can be assured that reductions to Medicaid will cause
rural hospitals like those in Faribault, Owatonna, and Waseca to close or significantly reduce services. In
addition, primary care physicians’ income will go down leading to fewer practitioners providing care in
rural areas.
In addition, five out of eight nursing home residents are on Medicaid. And it’s not just low-income folks.
People spend down personal resources to access the overwhelming expense of eldercare. Even those
with resources to pay for long-term care won’t have nursing homes to turn to. These facilities simply
can’t make a go of it without Medicaid and will close. So, who’ll care for Grandma when her family is
unable to provide the level of care she needs?
We don’t know (but can imagine) the impact that laying off Social Security and IRS staffing and
shuttering the Department of Education will cause.
What we do know is that proposed federal funding cuts coming to the Faribault School District total
$6.15 million! And every school district in the United States will incur similar losses. I don’t know how
local schools could even stay afloat with that kind of budget slashing. State and local taxpayers will most
assuredly be asked to make up for those losses.
Are any of us confident that current US Department of Education funding will actually make it to
Minnesota schools? Can any of us be assured that education funding won’t be lost in the bureaucratic
chaos that DOGE is wreaking?
The most bitter pill to swallow is that the massive cuts to government spending is in pursuit of extending
Trump tax cuts from his first term—cuts that mainly benefit higher income individuals and corporations.
Those tax cuts will cost Americans at least $4.5 trillion!
Get vocal! Speak out! Call Rep. Brad Finstad, (202)225-2472 every day. Write emails and postcards to
him. He needs to know that he needs to represent Minnesotans in CD1, or we’ll find someone who will in
2026.
