Note: This was a speech given by Senator Steve Drazkowski, on May 19, 2023 during the debate on SF 2934, the Omnibus Human Services Appropriation Conference Committee Report, on a motion to reject the Report and send it back to the Conference Committee. The motion was rejected and the report passed, 35-32. However, as part of the final budget negotiations, Senate Republicans insisted on increasing funding for Nursing Homes and a 300-million-dollar increase became part of the final agreement.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, members, for the discussion.
First of all, I’d like to thank Senator Hoffman for including in the bill a small provision for a nursing facility in my district that takes care of very acute patients with traumatic brain injury. A very small provision in this bill makes certain that, at least for two more years, that that nursing home can continue to stay open. However, as we look at the bill and the shortcomings of this bill, a disparity exists for the rest of the nursing homes in the state. We’ve heard a great deal about it. We’ve heard from the Long-Term Care Imperative. Members have read portions of their letter, and members as I look at their letter, the one thing that sticks out very clearly —the nursing homes in Minnesota are saying that they are, quote, on the brink of collapse.
They’re going to collapse, Mr. President, if the legislature doesn’t act properly.
And to Senator Farnsworth, who brought up the notion that maybe he thought he was naive in thinking that this legislature would definitely take care of nursing homes when we’re projected to have a 19 billion dollar over-collection of the people’s money. Landing here in Saint Paul, I would say that it wasn’t naive, Senator. I said the same things to my nursing homes when I talked to them six or so months ago. I could not envision any way that this legislature would not do the right thing and take care of the most vulnerable people in our state. And Senator Farnsworth, I’ve been in the legislature for 15 years, and I have never seen a misplacement of priorities as we are seeing here right now before us. And priorities they are Mr. President. A budget is a statement of those priorities, and before us, we have the Human Services bill that is supposed to determine for the people of Minnesota what the priority is for nursing home facilities in those very, very, very vulnerable people who rely on them to continue their life.
Mr. President, just a few months ago, my father had an emergency surgery, and after the surgery, he was placed in a nursing home for rehabilitative care. He’s 83. He’ll be 84 next week. And they did a great job at the nursing home bringing him through. His wounds were healed, but the stress from the surgery and the anesthesia severely deepened his dementia from where he was. He’s now in a nursing home in Winona. They’re doing a wonderful job with him even though they’re 25 percent or more short-staffed. The people are working overtime to try to keep up with the needs of the residents, and we talked about the fact that they are underpaid in the face of the wage inflation, that is a reality that has happened in many, or probably every sector in our state.
And so as I visit my dad there, the man who I grew up to idolize, the one who I thought was the strongest person in the world, the most capable person I had ever met now, is relying upon other people to keep him alive.
And there are other people like my dad, Mr. President, throughout the state of Minnesota in all the nursing homes we have. And as I mentioned earlier, as I talked to the nursing home directors, not only the one there but a nursing home in Red Wing and other nursing homes in my district, my message to them was we’re going to have at that point, Mr. President we were expecting, to be accurate, a 17 billion dollar over collection of the people’s money. And then it inflated in March, as we know to 19 billion; it got to be even more money. So as I listened to the discussion and I was one of the 63 members of this chamber, 63 out of 67, Mr. President who voted for the bill going out of here that didn’t completely address the nursing homes’ needs, but it was light years ahead of where this is, and this falls so dramatically short, but I was one of those members in supporting Senator Hoffman pushing that bill forward to try to bring back something for nursing homes Mr. President, the 200 million dollars or the 190 million, one percent of the 19 billion dollars. One percent of 19 billion dollars is what it would take in this bill to do the job. This legislature couldn’t find one percent for the most vulnerable people in our state.
The people of Minnesota have to be wondering what are the priorities of this legislature. They can’t dedicate one percent of the huge historic budget surplus. 19 billion dollars, Mr. President. There were years when we would be so excited if there was a 300-million-dollar surplus. No one would’ve ever anticipated this type of surplus, and we can’t take one percent of it for the people who couldn’t stay alive without the help that nursing homes provide them. The people like my father, who was a county commissioner in his county. For many many many years, he was a town board officer. He ran a farm. He raised five boys and was a leader in his community. And we can’t take care of people like him for the last years of their life as they run the last leg of the race.
And as my dad has his moments of dementia in the nursing home so he can’t unload his last five boxes of silage. That last five loads of hay which is all that he wants to be doing. And we can’t find one percent.
Now I look at, Mr. President, the rest of the things we brought through here, some of them are still coming through. The lust that the majority has for this money and its spending in all kinds of other areas is just so unbelievable. I look at the budget spreadsheet Mr. President in this area for this bill, it’s a 10 percent increase over the budgeted forecast for the planning biennium we’re working on, but if you take the total all of the budget areas collectively, Mr. President it’s a 33 percent increase that 19 or 20 billion dollar increase in spending is a 33 percent increase across all budget areas. 33 percent increase in spending over the forecast. This budget area is a 10 percent increase in spending over the forecast. Now there are some other categories in the budget, Mr. President, that are 86 percent increase, one’s at 155 percent increase, one is at 341 percent, 396 percent, 865 percent increase, in a different budget area. In yet another area, a 935 percent increase in spending. But this legislature can’t find one percent.
Now we’ve had bills before us to increase the salary for the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, the Auditor, and the Attorney General, to salary amounts of over $150,000 apiece. We’ve had bills to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to special interests. Many of them appear to be more pay-to-play types of schemes. We even have bills paying people not to work, Mr. President. We’re paying people who are part-time employees in our schools not to work. And all our nursing homes need is to pay people to work they want to work, Mr. President and there’s beds available for them to work next to. But we can’t find one percent.
Mr. President, a budget is a statement of priorities. I would say to my fellow Senators who said that they were dealt some sort of deck of cards by somebody, somewhere on high in the legislature, that there’s one vote in this Senate that can help us send this bill back for one percent. And if we get that one percent Mr. President we’ll turn this ship around, and we won’t be pulling the plug on Minnesota’s most vulnerable population. Thank you, Mr. President.