Minnesota Needs You: A Guide to Rural Issues

Businesses can’t grow if they can’t find employees. And people can’t take jobs if they don’t have childcare.

Rural Minnesota is grappling with a serious childcare shortage, and that shortage impacts everyone. Businesses can’t grow if they can’t find available workers. And people can’t take jobs if they don’t have quality childcare.

But running a childcare facility can be prohibitively expensive.

One issue driving up costs is the lack of childcare facilities that are sized to help providers maximize child-teacher ratios. Another is the high energy costs of running the centers.

There is no one-size-fits-all model. We will have to get creative. But so far, initiatives to help rural childcare providers have lacked funds for new buildings or significant improvements to existing spaces.

But our communities increasingly recognize that:

1. Childcare is an investment in economic development.
2. The most effective action for building childcare capacity is to help childcare providers make their businesses financially stable.

Communities can seek benefits from utilities, or other public or private funds for building, expanding, or retrofitting childcare centers to

• Maximize efficiency of student and teacher ratios
• Provide healthy, temperature-controlled spaces requiring minimal energy use

This saves on start-up and operation costs from day one. These savings, combined with community partnerships, provide the funds to keep our best childcare teachers and staff in business.

See How a Green Bank Can Help with Rural Childcare Access
See Rural Childcare Innovation Program
See New Childcare Pod Model in Stevens County
See Intergenerational Programming at Warroad Community Child Care Center

Healthcare is critical infrastructure for our communities. We need services that are available, accessible, and affordable.

Living in rural Minnesota shouldn’t mean sacrificing quality healthcare. Our families deserve care close to home, not hours away. We work hard and our healthcare system should work for us too.

Our health is shaped by what surrounds us, and living in rural areas comes with unique challenges.

• Rural residents face longer drives to healthcare facilities and have fewer options for providers. Lack of mobility options is a barrier for many to access these services.
• Rising costs, staff shortages, uneven medicare reimbursements, and denied insurance claims make it difficult for rural hospitals to provide quality care. Unfortunately, Minnesota leads the nation in rural hospital closures of obstetrical units, forcing people in labor to travel farther, putting lives at risk.
• Stress from unpredictable farm profits, to pollution, and a changing physical environment can make it harder to care for our families and ourselves.

What we need:

• Health plans we can afford.
• Stabilized funding for our healthcare facilities.
• Investment in broadband, housing, and childcare, so health professionals can live and work here.
• Investment in mental health services and support systems, so rural residents get the help they need to cope with stress, depression, and other challenges.

We can’t fill workforce gaps if there isn’t a place for people to live. We need affordable housing, senior living, and good community design.

To fill gaps in essential services, from the hospital to the manufacturing plant, workers need affordable housing.

People want to come to live, to work, to raise their families here. But they can’t if there isn’t a place to live.

We need housing options for every phase of life.  Affordable and modern choices for folks just starting out. Functional housing for growing families. And options for life-long residents who want to safely stay in the community.

Single-family housing is closely tied to the availability of senior facilities. Without accessible options, seniors stay in large, older homes longer, often causing them to fall into disrepair rather than being passed down to new owners ( Center for Rural Policy and Development ). Addressing housing comprehensively is essential to meet our needs. 

Investing in new housing and senior living facilities offers an opportunity to incorporate sustainable community design and ensure long-term energy savings. Resources are currently available at the state and federal level to build zero emission communities and housing with near zero energy costs; it’s time for our towns to seize this moment!

See Candidate Guide to Housing Needs and Solutions in Rural Minnesota
See MNCIFA, passed in 2023, to help communities access money for renewable energy projects from individual homes to city-wide systems.

Broadband in every corner of our state is a necessity, not a luxury

Access to broadband in every corner of our state is a necessity – not a luxury – to participate in the global economy:

• Farmers need it to use new technologies.
• Our schools need it for online education.
• Small businesses rely on it for accounting and to sell their goods.

The people of our community work as hard or harder than anyone, but they need a level playing field to compete.

Our state goal is to get high-speed internet to all homes and businesses by 2026 – and we’ve put together the funds to do it:

• $652 million from the federal government, passed under the IIJA (Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act), plus
• $100 million investment from our state passed in 2023.

Rural communities need broadband and Minnesota is delivering.

See Map of Awarded Projects in 2024.
See Minnesota Broadband Grant Program web page.

Good for our people, good for our pocketbooks.

As tax bases shift, city and county governments can look to supplement revenue or reduce costs without burdening residents. One option: taking advantage of renewable energy projects like solar, wind or transmission sited in your community.

Energy production revenue

• In 2021, eight Southern MN counties received a combined $12 million in their annual revenue payments from wind energy production taxes. (Energy production tax revenue is largely unrestricted and can be added directly to a county or township’s general fund.)
• A Report by the Center for Rural Affairs shows how some host counties are using this money to reduce tax burdens, update aging infrastructure, and kickstart new initiatives.

Funding for local energy savings

• Morris, population 5,000, has used state financing to fund a host of local renewable energy projects – saving the city money for other needs.
• Inflation Reduction Act incentives rebate local governments 30-70% of renewable energy project costs, making them even more cost effective. Once built, renewable energy systems save cities operating costs year after year.

Staying ahead on renewable energy is good for our pocketbooks and our environment.

Our infrastructure should meet our changing needs.

Climate change is bringing more frequent and extreme weather challenges – from fires and floods to poor air quality. This means that when we build, we need to build better. When we take advantage of federal and local funding, we can take build smarter, in ways that cost us less and give us more:

• Roads and bridges should be designed to withstand extreme weather, including storms and floods that were once considered rare but are now becoming more common.
• Natural spaces should be protected and integrated into the landscape to prevent erosion and absorb water from rainfall and increased runoff.
• Buildings should be equipped with solar panels, battery storage, heat pumps, or networked geothermal to save money, reduce pollution, and keep us powered even if a transmission line goes down.
• Energy grids should be planned to anticipate outages by using microgrids powered by local energy. Distributed energy keeps the lights on and medical equipment running – especially important in rural areas where one downed power line can leave entire communities in the dark.

Plan now to be ready in case disaster comes.

Should disaster strike, how will your community respond? Will it rebuild just to replace what was lost? Or rebuild stronger with smarter infrastructure? The days after a disaster aren’t the right time to start planning. Cities and towns across Minnesota– even small ones – should start these conversations now, so that if rebuilding is needed, the community has a clear plan and vision to guide the way forward.

Looking out for our neighbors, whether they are down the road or across the globe: this is what we are good at in rural Minnesota.

Whether we call it unusual weather or climate change, we are all experiencing the same thing:

More extreme storms, record-breaking heat waves, dwindling winters, more droughts, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and the damage that comes with them.
Insurance companies are raising rates, cutting coverage, and even leaving entire states like Minnesota because of the growing risk of severe storms. This is a tangible result of what science has told us: if we stay on the same course, disasters from climate change will continue to increase in number and severity.

But the increasing damage from climate change is only inevitable if we fail to act.

Individual actions help us each individually – they save us money, protect our health, or increase our home or property’s resilience. These are critical.

But it will be the actions we take collectively that will lead us to a better future – one that meets all of our needs and confronts the reality of our climate.

Fortunately, taking care of what binds us together is something we do well in rural Minnesota. We look out for our neighbors. We build the fire station. We bring in the crops. We honor our veterans. Together, we can tackle the challenges of climate change, too—if we choose to face them head-on.

Climate change is happening because we have burned fossil fuels to power our economy for the last 150 years. Those fossil fuels gave us what we needed at the time: energy to feed, cool, make, and move. But they’ve also come at a cost we can no longer ignore.

Now, we have the tools to move forward. Technology like solar, wind, and battery storage can power our lives without polluting our air, poisoning our water, or coming from far-off places. Renewable energy is more efficient, plentiful, and available for free—delivered by the sun and wind, day after day, year after year.

We don’t need to accept a future with an unlivable climate. We can take steps now to lessen its effects and protect our communities and ecosystems.

Here’s what it takes:

• Leaders who understand and are honest about climate change.
• Governments that invest in the technologies that help us transition.
• Support for the solutions that make our lives better and rejection of the false solutions that leave communities behind.

Confronting climate change means making the decisions that help instead of the decisions that cause harm. We can pull together to do that. Pulling together is what we do best.

Our aquifers held the water for our grandparents and should do the same for our grandchildren – but they won’t if we give it away, let industry pollute it, or allow it to run dry.

Rural places are facing increasing water challenges, as droughts and water-hungry industrial farming practices making water supplies less certain. Many of our waters are unfit for swimming and fishing, and our aging drinking water treatment systems need costly upgrading and maintenance.

Now is the time to make significant investments in our water systems. Federal and state money has been allocated to help communities make these investments.

• When we upgrade our drinking water facilities to address nitrates, PFAS and other contaminants, we need to upgrade them to save our communities money, too. Energy is the most expensive part of operating a water treatment facility. Using solar and wind, paired with battery storage, will not only make these systems reliable, but it will also drastically reduce ongoing energy costs of providing clean drinking water.

See how the City of Morris plans to use solar to offset the costs of operating their water treatment facilities.

• When we replace lead pipes – thanks to federal and state investments – we should think about whether other systems, like thermal energy networks, should be included at the same time.
• When agricultural and industry pollute or deplete our limited water resources, they must be held accountable.

Rural people, closely connected to the land, understand better than anyone the changes to our landscape.

Strong communities depend on healthy ecosystems:

Our well-being and the health of the land are deeply connected. Our environment impacts our health, our economy, and our overall quality of life. Our natural surroundings are often a big part of what makes a place feel like home.

Many of us live near industrial facilities – farms, manufacturing plants, coal plants, mines – where we are exposed to pollution that seeps into the groundwater we drink or drifts into the air we breathe. If our air, food, and water are bathed in chemicals or pollution, our health suffers. 

We share responsibility for our natural resources:

We all have attachments to the places we call home and should be invited to have a say in the decisions that affect it.

What does it look like for communities to have a voice in the decisions that affect them?

It looks like transparency about new projects and clear education on the pollutants in our air and water, so we know the risks we face. It means having access to public meetings and opportunities to share input on agricultural and industrial regulations that protect our health and safety. Often, outsiders see our land as an opportunity for their projects. Having a voice means being included at every step of the decision-making process.

Our rural communities thrive when they are safe and welcoming for everyone. Diversity strengthens us in many ways—through differences in age, gender, culture, skills, and backgrounds. When we get to know people as people first, we build trust. And trust and respect are essential to getting through challenges our communities face. Embracing our differences not only enriches our social fabric but also strengthens our economy by bringing in new ideas and filling essential roles and jobs.

We can take these steps to ensure everyone feels welcome and supported in our rural communities:

• Engage with immigrant and refugee groups to foster understanding and build stronger community ties.
• Invest in translation resources so that everyone can participate in local events and government meetings.
• Adjust meeting times to make government meetings more accessible to working families and individuals with different schedules.
• Promote mental health resources and reduce stigma by creating spaces where everyone feels safe seeking help.

By welcoming people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, we create stronger, more connected, and happier communities.

See Models for a More Welcoming and Engaging Community

Democracy means having a say in the decisions that shape our lives.

Democracy isn’t just about elections. It’s about the choices that affect us every day: our schools, streets, and safety. At its core, democracy is about having a voice in the matters that affect us.

To make that happen, we need two things:

1. Reliable information
2. Opportunities for real discussion

Too often, decisions that affect us are made without our input.  We all have busy lives, but we also want the chance to be considered when decisions are made, share our thoughts, and know that our voice was valued.

Give Representation Meaning: Our elected officials impact almost every aspect of our lives—from our schools and streets to our energy systems, social safety nets, and even the hours we can access our local parks. Good governance happens when our voices are reflected by the decision makers that represent us; government accountability to citizens is at the core of our democracy.

Share Responsibility of Leadership: Continually placing all the leadership responsibility on the same individuals isn’t fair to them or the community. We encourage and support community members from all backgrounds to step forward and participate in local governance. We know the power of down-ballot positions, so let’s ensure that leadership roles reflect all of us and our needs.

Remove Participation Barriers: Meeting times for important local leadership boards often leave out most of today’s rural working folks and parents. It’s critical to schedule meeting times that work for everyone. Otherwise, we all miss out on new leadership.