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

“At the start of the pandemic, Minnesota businesses were told they would not be held accountable for dipping into this fund to keep their employees on the payroll,” Senator David Osmek (R-Mound) said. “Yet somehow Democrats were unable to join us to solve this, and the costs were being passed on to business and consumers. I’m glad today our government was able to accomplish what other states have already done by paying its bill and helping support our employers.”

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 primarily federal funds. As part of the agreement, $500 million from the surplus will go to frontline workers most at risk during the COVID pandemic. As the Senate proposed two weeks ago, the House DFL will choose which workers will get bonuses.

“This agreement also allows us to honor our workers who took exceptional risks to keep us safe during the Covid pandemic,” Senator Osmek continued. “This bonus pay is just a small token of Minnesota’s deep gratitude to our frontline workers who sacrificed their wellbeing to help us before we had control of the virus.”

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.