Dear Neighbor,
Faith and I wish you a happy and safe Independence Day holiday. We always look forward to seeing patriotic displays over the 4th and it may be as meaningful as ever this year amid the challenges we face on a number of fronts.
As for official legislative news, here are this week’s jottings:
New laws take effect Wednesday
A handful of new laws will take effect July 1, including tractor safety. A tractor rollover prevention grant program that I worked to create a few years ago expired in 2019 and is being re-established as of tomorrow. It permits the Agriculture Department to award grants to farmers and schools that retrofit tractors built before 1987 with eligible rollover protective structures.
More information on new laws can be accessed here. Summaries of all laws passed by the 2020 Legislature are available online from nonpartisan House Public Information Services here.
Deadline to apply for small biz grants is Thursday
The deadline for small businesses to apply for COVID-19 relief grants is 5 p.m. Thursday. This program will make available $10,000 grants to Minnesota owned and operated businesses that can demonstrate financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees may be eligible. A total of $60.3 million is available for grant awards which will be selected through a computer-generated, randomized selection process. Click here for more.
Awaiting word on another special session
While we have not received official word regarding a special session that could take place in the next couple of weeks, we anticipate the governor will call one, in part, to extend his emergency powers. His latest 30-day extension ends July 12 and he would need to call a special session to push his powers out another month, bringing us to five months under executive rule. I would rather see the governor’s emergency powers come to an end so we can restore balance at the Capitol instead of having the Legislature cut out of the decision-making process.
Until next time, have a good holiday weekend as we celebrate our nation’s Declaration of Independence this week. Please be safe and do what you can to stay cool with rather high temps in the forecast.
Sincerely,
Paul