St. Paul, MN ‒ Governor Walz announced he would distribute the full $841 million in federal CARES Act funding to local entities. The distribution is according to the approved compromise legislation the Senate and House agreed to in the special session three weeks ago.

“I’m glad the governor has decided to use the fair and well-developed system of aid distribution that Senate Republicans fought for and initially passed in the Senate,” said Senator Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake), Chair of the Senate Agriculture, Rural Development, and Housing Finance Committee. “This proves the bill shouldn’t have been killed during special session when DFL leadership walked away from our rural communities. Nevertheless, the aid is necessary for the survival of our communities and I am very happy that they will receive what they are due.”

The compromise agreement distributed the local government funding fairly to Minnesota counties, cities, and towns based on a formula using their populations. The Senate passed the agreed-upon legislation with nearly unanimous support during the special session **[last month]. The legislation brought transparency and fairness to the distribution since the federal funds were not subject to legislative approval and could be spent unilaterally by Walz.

Minnesota received more than$2 billion from the federal government to help local governments, health professionals, and businesses fight COVID. That money went into an account called the Federal Coronavirus Relief Fund, so it could be quickly deployed to places it is needed most.  There is great flexibility for counties and communities on how to use this one-time federal aid to respond to the economic injuries in their community directly related to Covid 19.