Minnesota Council on Disability Capacity Building Funding
The Minnesota Council on Disability will request a capacity building budget increase of $750,000 in FY2024 and then $1,247,000 each fiscal year afterwards. This is on top of the current budget of $1,038,000, resulting in a total yearly budget of $2,285,000. This budget will result in increased capacity for the agency to serve Minnesotans with disabilities and advise the Minnesota legislative and executive branches. With stronger capacity, MCD will be a better representative & advocate for Minnesotans with disabilities in our state government. MCD will focus on increasing authentic community engagement and serving as a resource for Minnesotans with disabilities.
State Employment and Retention of Employees with Disabilities
The goal of this policy is to improve the hiring and retention of employees with disabilities at the state of Minnesota.
The bill that is introduced does the following:
- Codifies Dayton Executive Order 14-14 (PDF) & Gov. Walz Executive Order 19-15 (PDF)
- Improves the implementation and execution of the Connect 700 program
- Provides direction to MMB regarding disability policies and employment
- Codifies and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of ADA coordinators in state agencies
- Standardizes the training of hiring managers and ADA coordinators across all state agencies
- Establishes a data collection and reporting structure on the advancement of employees with disabilities
We believe when more people with disabilities work for the state, policies that impact the disability community will have better disability representation. With more people disabilities in our state enterprise and at the policy/decision-making table, the more informed and impactful those policies will be.
Rare Disease Advisory Council On-Going Funding
The Rare Disease Advisory Council is a new state agency whose focus is to represent and advocate for Minnesotans with rare diseases. The council currently has a sunset provision for its funding at the end of FY2023. We support on-going funding for the council so they can continue their work to improve the lives of Minnesotans with rare diseases.