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When large crowds have gathered in front of House and Senate chambers during the 2009 legislative session, chances are few folks have been wearing "Invest in Minnesota" stickers.
For several sessions, the Invest in Minnesota coalition of unions, nonprofits and faith-based organizations has pulled together to organize about the central point of tension among lawmakers in recent sessions: Increasing revenue to fix Minnesota's chronic budget deficits.
Marcia Avner, one of the coalition's early organizers back in 2003 when it was called Minnesota is Watching, says the group will continue its broad-based advocacy efforts regardless of the outcome of this session, scheduled to adjourn no later than Monday.
"We know our work isn't done. We will be developing strategies for advancing our message if they go beyond May 18," Avner says. "We look ahead to the next three to five years and know that until the economy becomes robust it will be a struggle to figure out a balanced approach to solving deficits."
Avner, 65, has been director of the public affairs operations of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) since 1996. She joined the St. Paul-based statewide association with 1,850 member organizations after serving as the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone's Minnesota-based communications director.
Avner, a Pittsburgh native, has worked in advocacy in Minnesota since the early 1970s. She observes that the Invest in Minnesota coalition has been able to bring a strong message to the state Capitol by getting a large group of people to agree on a central message.
But Avner, in an interview in her University Avenue office six days before the constitutional adjournment date, says she's frustrated that GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty has publically rejected calls for increased tax revenue to fix the $4.6 billion budget that's projected for 2010-2011.
"We knew it would be hard to settle on a tax package. We didn't think the governor would be as rigid as he has been about not looking at putting revenue raisers on the table," Avner says.
"The frustration comes from recognizing what it will mean in the short term for the cuts to be as deep as they will have to be if we don't raise revenues. And from recognizing that the out-years could look worse."
The coalition has advocated the need to increase state revenues at the Capitol since its founding toward the end of the 2003 session when the state faced a $4.2 billion shortfall. Avner recalls getting a call from Ray Waldron, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, about plans for a post-session press conference to criticize the cuts that were expected to happen. People from faith-based organizations, nonprofit organizations and unions got involved in the organizing and decided to act before the end of session.
They quickly assembled a pretend session of the Legislature in the Capitol rotunda. They voted for a tax increase and against the cuts. Even though the so-called People's Legislature event couldn't stop the deep cuts lawmakers made that year, the event was a media coup that kick-started the coalition.
Maintaining such a broad-based group can be challenging, Avner says. That's why they keep their message broad. While some groups will emphasize health care or education, Invest in Minnesota keeps its message above specific policy areas.
"We are very careful never to divide the group by picking very specific pieces of legislation," Avner says. "We are always about, and this is our mantra - raise adequate revenues fairly to invest in Minnesota's priorities."
Last year, Minnesota is Watching became known as Invest in Minnesota. And now, for the first time, the coalition has a staff member.
Like many nonprofit leaders, Avner earned her college degree in English. She got involved in advocacy in 1972 shortly after moving to Minneapolis. At the time she was a stay-at-home mom working on a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She got involved in advocacy for the hearing impaired because her son is deaf.
As president of what was then called the Minneapolis Association of the Hearing Impaired, Avner recalls buying a suit and heading to the state Capitol for the first time to testify on a bill that proposed to regulate the hearing-aid industry. It was a really volatile hearing that was opposed by hearing aid dealers. A scuffle erupted outside the hearing room when one of the dealers decided to side with the advocates.
For six years Avner worked as education director for Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG). At MPIRG, she advocated successfully for solar and wind energy tax credits. She stayed involved with energy issues for four more years as Gov. Rudy Perpich's deputy commissioner for energy. (Avner's time in the Perpich administration saw the 1983 energy crisis when fuel outages occurred during Christmas.)
She also worked at MPIRG on teaching people to be advocates, a skill she uses in her current job at the MCN. For several years, she's taught classes in the master's program in advocacy and political leadership at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
Avner served as deputy mayor for St. Paul Mayor Jim Scheibel before Wellstone was elected.
Wellstone, his wife Sheila and her fellow Wellstone staff members had a profound impact on her that has lasted well beyond the tragic October 2002 plane crash in Eveleth in which the Wellstones and six other people died.
In addition to her work for Paul Wellstone, she worked with Sheila Wellstone on domestic violence issues. Avner, who has been married to political commentator and former lobbyist Wy Spano for 10 years, is on the board of Wellstone Action.
"Many of us who worked with Paul continue to be very close, continue to feel that we are deeply committed to carrying forward the values and the work," Avner says.
It's in that spirit that she plans to push forward with Invest in Minnesota.
"We do feel we are part of a movement that is very much about Paul's core conviction that we all do better when we do better. I think you can see that connection in Invest in Minnesota."
