Every Minnesotan will have a guaranteed right to health care and the state will invest in its future by repairing and building new schools and other infrastructure, if proposals supported by the labor movement are enacted this year at the state Capitol.

The 2006 session of the Minnesota Legislature gets underway Wednesday and is likely to run through mid-May. Labor unions have a couple of key priorities ? health care and infrastructure investment ? and also want to stop initiatives they believe would hurt Minnesotans, such as the governor's proposals on immigration.

This year, a coalition including organized labor wants the Legislature to take a big step ? amend the state Constitution to guarantee every Minnesotan the right to health care. The constitution currently spells out specifically only two rights ? the right to a public education ? and the right to hunt and fish.

The text of the proposed health care amendment reads: "Health care is a right. Every Minnesota resident shall have the right to basic health care. It shall be the responsibility of the Governor and the Legislature to implement all necessary legislation to ensure affordable basic health care." If approved by the Legislature, the measure would appear on the November ballot so that Minnesotans could vote to make it part of the Constitution.

Every year, dozens of proposals are introduced to fix parts of the broken health care system, Minnesota AFL-CIO Legislative Director Brad Lehto said. "The Legislature will never act without an amendment," he said.

Currently, 444,000 Minnesotans lack health insurance and thousands more are underinsured and cannot pay for many medical needs. The amendment includes a 2008 deadline for legislation to be enacted to provide all residents with health care.

The amendment does not outline a way to achieve health care for all Minnesotans, but "would trigger a discussion about how to make sure we have universal coverage," said state Senator Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, one of its sponsors.

Investing in infrastructure
In even-numbered years, the Legislature usually approves a bonding bill to pay for building and maintaining schools and university buildings, the state's parks and trails, and many other public works projects. Governor Tim Pawlenty has proposed an $897 million plan ? with about a third of it going to higher education.

Dick Anfang, president of the Minnesota State Building & Construction Trades Council, said the governor's plan is a good start ? but it doesn't go far enough.

"It's no secret the Building Trades would like to see the largest bonding bill possible, because it means jobs," Anfang said. But bonding also is an investment, he said. The Building Trades believe projects like the North Star Commuter rail line, extending from the Twin Cities to Big Lake, would spur major economic development.

Delaying necessary projects ? such as maintenance of school buildings ? only costs more money in the long run, Anfang noted. "We just came through a period of low interest rates. Rates and the cost of materials are only going to go up . . . every day, time is money."

For the second year in a row, Pawlenty failed to include a small but very important item in his bonding proposal ? money for a Workers Memorial at the state Capitol. Minnesota AFL-CIO President Emeritus David Roe has spearheaded a campaign to build the memorial to honor the many Minnesota workers who have been killed and injured on the job. Lehto said even though the governor is not a supporter, the labor movement will continue to work to get the Workers Memorial included in the bonding bill passed by the Legislature.

Concern about immigration proposals
The labor movement is worried the 2006 session will be dominated by negative issues ? such as the governor's proposal to target undocumented workers through a new, statewide law enforcement task force.

While acknowledging that the immigration system needs reform, labor leaders say the solution is not to target undocumented workers, many of whom have lost employment in their home countries because of unfair trade agreements like NAFTA. Often, these workers are exploited in the United States, but the governor's proposals do nothing to address that problem.

"We believe there is dignity in all work and dignity for all workers," Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter told a state Senate committee during a hearing Monday.

"We are deeply dedicated to immigration reform," said Javier Morillo-Alicea, president of SEIU Local 26, who said many of the workers he represents are immigrants. Both Hunter and Morillo-Alicea said immigrant workers contribute more to Minnesota than they receive in assistance.

Economist Jim Kielkopf testified he has done several studies on the impact of undocumented workers and that the total value of undocumented workers is about $3.8 billion or 2 percent of the state economy. He said there are approximately 48,000 undocumented workers in the state and if they were not present an additional 50,000 workers would lose their jobs. He said that, generally, one low-wage job adds at least one other job to the economy.

Kielkopf said undocumented workers generate between $250 million and $350 million in tax revenue. However, there are increased costs in education for immigrants, he said.

Foreign born workers account for 6 percent of the workforce and 5 percent, or about $5 billion, of Minnesota earnings, state demographer Tom Gillespy said.

This report includes committee testimony provided by Senate Briefly, the publication of the Minnesota Senate.

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