protections against corporate monopolies

The growing power of corporate monopolies threatens our economic stability and the health of our communities.

Accountability against anti-competitive business practices is now practically non-existent at the federal level. It is our responsibility as a state to pass strong protections for workers, consumers, and small business against the growing financial burden imposed on us by monopolistic business practices.

• Strengthen Minnesota’s anti-trust laws to prevent the consolidation of corporate power in the hands of a few large businesses that get rich by increasing your cost of living, stifling small business entrepreneurship, and driving down wages.

• Prohibit price gouging on groceries and pharmaceuticals

• Ban the use of surveillance pricing and automated algorithmic price-fixing that result in arbitrarily increased costs for consumers based on sensitive consumer data

• Explore creating publicly owned utility companies to reduce cost of living expenses and administrative overhead

Make housing more affordable

Housing impacts every facet of our lives, including our health, safety, and economic opportunity. The cost of housing has become a significant financial burden for many working families in our community over the years. When housing costs encompass increasing proportions of our household budgets, fewer people are able to achieve economic stability. While serving in the legislature, I was awarded the Homes for All Coalition’s Housing Champion Award for advancing legislation directed toward expanding safe, supportive housing for adults and youth experiencing housing instability. I subsequently worked to pass emergency funding for stable housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Support general obligation bond funding for building and maintaining more affordable and public housing

• Limit corporate and investment fund purchasing of single family homes to convert into rental properties that often drive up home and rental costs

• Invest in supportive housing and continuum of care services to ensure every Minnesotan has a roof over their head with the resources they need to succeed

• Advocate for funding to expand Burnsville’s efforts to retrofit and refurbish dilapidated housing in order to increase our affordable housing supply

Tax fairness and sustainable revenue

Minnesotans expect high quality services and investments in the future when we pay our taxes. We need to ensure every dollar of taxpayer money is going towards its intended purpose of bettering our state. We need to explore all avenues for funding a good quality of life for all Minnesotans while easing disproportionate tax burdens on working people and retirees.

• Establish an independent Office of Inspector General for all state agencies to ensure appropriate oversight

• Create a sixth tax bracket for the top 1% of earners to fund essential public services in the wake of ongoing devastating funding cuts from the federal government

• Pass worldwide combined reporting to close corporate tax loopholes and ensure tax fairness

Supporting the right to unionize and working class prosperity

We are seeing unprecedented attacks on labor protections and coordinated national strategies to undermine workers’ rights and the ability to form a union to bargain for better pay and benefits. As a former SEIU Healthcare member and former labor contract negotiator, I believe deeply that the union makes us strong and building worker power is the most effective avenue, regardless of industry or partisan leaning, to balance the scales of economic power.

• Strongly oppose any efforts to pass “right to work (for less)” legislation

• Day 1: Author an amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution to protect a worker’s right to form a union

• Prohibit economic collusion among large employers that deliberately frustrate the bargaining process

• Expand unemployment insurance and explore pathways for maintaining health insurance access for workers forced to go on strike

• Phase out the discriminatory practice of sub-minimum wage and ensure workers with disabilities are paid fairly for their labor

• End misclassification fraud and combat the increasing trend of inappropriate classification of employees as independent contractors

• Require project labor agreements and prevailing wages for all projects receiving public money