Today, the Minnesota Senate passed legislation, in agreement with the House, to stop devastating tax increases on small businesses and provide meaningful bonuses to frontline workers. The agreement resolves the differences between repaying and refilling the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund and providing bonuses to workers who worked the frontline during the COVID pandemic.

 “Our businesses and workers suffered a lot during the pandemic lockdowns,” Senator Justin Eichorn (R-Grand Rapids) said. “The Senate acted months ago to address the urgent need to replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to help our small businesses and their workers. The Democrat House risked crippling the lifeblood of our economy with massive tax increases because of their inaction. I am grateful we were finally able to reach an agreement to avoid this disaster.”  

The agreement means $2.7 billion will be used to pay off the loan from the federal government and refill the UI fund to its necessary balance using mostly federal funds. As part of the agreement, $500 million from the surplus will go to frontline workers who were most at risk during the COVID pandemic.

The agreement spends the remaining federal ARPA funds available to Minnesota for COVID, which otherwise would have been available to Gov. Walz on June 1 if left unspent.