An open letter to state agency staff from The Intelligencer:
It seems like every time I get on the phone with the head of a state agency, I hear this: “People want the services the state provides, but they don’t want to pay for it.”
This is the time of year when your agency has to go before legislators to justify the work you do and the money it takes to do it. There will be talk of the consequences of funding cuts — often that talk is of human consequences: a critical service not rendered in time, important questions from vulnerable Minnesotans with nobody to answer them, violations by people holding state certifications or licenses go ignored or undetected.
We have covered state agency cuts here at MinnPost, and now we want to expand our network of trusted sources to include you. Maybe you are engaged in administrative work, investigations, or enforcement. Whatever your role, you have a perspective that is valuable to our reporting efforts.
We know your agency and its services have likely been affected by budget cuts and we know that more changes are on the way. We’re looking to you to tell us exactly what those changes mean.
We’ve created a simple and secure form below where you can share your experiences.
What you share will not be published; it will be confidential and will help to inform and guide our reporting.
If you are reading this and you don’t work for a state agency, I bet you know somebody who does — please send them a link.
You don’t have to use the form below. We can do this the old-fashioned way too: call me at 612-978-3325 or email me at jsguntzel@minnpost.com. Or you can send your thoughts to MinnPost’s offices at 900 6th Ave. SE. #220, Minneapolis, 55414. You can also send a fax to 612-455-6960.
Thank you for your help; it is essential to getting this story right.
