The Minnesota Budget Project, an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, provides independent research, analysis and advocacy on budget and tax issues, emphasizing their impact on low- and moderate-income Minnesotans and the organizations that serve them. Our mission is to provide interested citizens, elected officials and community leaders with timely and accurate information so that they can become more active and effective participants in the state and federal public policy debates.
The Minnesota Budget Bites blog is our way to highlight important information in a very timely way. Our goal is to keep Minnesotans who are interested in fair tax policy and good budget choices educated on the issues. We want you to know, what we know, when we know it.
About the contributors:
Nan Madden has been the director of the Minnesota Budget Project since 1999. Nan oversees the Minesota Budget Project’s research, analysis and capacity-building efforts. She has extensive public policy experience on tax, budget and economic self-sufficiency issues. Nan has an M.A., International Studies, from the University of Denver and a B.A. from Macalester College.
Christina Wessel has been with the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits since 2001, working her way through the ranks to become deputy director of the Minnesota Budget Project. Christina is active in monitoring state legislative activity, lobbying on key public policy and budget process issues, providing analysis on various tax and budget issues that impact low- and moderate-income Minnesotans and communicating this research and analysis to a broad range of audiences. Christina holds a B.A. from Wheaton College and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota.
Steve Francisco is federal policy director for the Minnesota Budget Project. He joined the staff in 2005. Steve’s current work includes organizing the nonprofit sector to become effective advocates on federal budget and tax policies that affect low and moderate-income Minnesotans. With 21 years of experience working in Washington as a Congressional staffer and lobbyist, he is familiar with a wide range of federal public policy issues. Steve earned his political science and law degrees from the University of Minnesota.
Katherine Blauvelt is a bona fide tax geek. She has been a policy analyst at the Minnesota Budget Project since 2007, where she writes analyses on both federal and state tax and budget issues. She has a background in both community organizing and policy research. Katherine earned a Masters in Public Policy at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, where she co-authored an article on federal tax reform with Professor Joel Slemrod, Director of the Office of Tax Policy Research. Katherine received her B.A. from Oberlin College.
