Dear Neighbors,
We’re now in the middle of the fourth week of the legislative session, which will end in mid-May. On Monday, we will receive an updated forecast of the state budget, giving us the final details that we will need to make fiscal decisions for the rest of the session. Here is an update from the Capitol.
Frontline Worker Pay
This week the Minnesota House passed the frontline worker bonus pay legislation HF 2900, which appropriates $1 billion for bonus payments to at least 667,000 frontline workers. The frontline worker bonus pay legislation builds upon the efforts of last year’s working group on this issue, and invests $1 billion in order to meaningfully recognize the Minnesotans who have worked on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible workers would receive payments of up to $1,500. There has been no action on this issue in the Senate.
In order to receive a bonus check, workers must meet the following individual eligibility requirements:
- was employed in one of the frontline sectors in MN for at least 120 hours from 3/15/20 to 6/30/21
- was not able to work remotely due to the nature of their work, and worked in close proximity to other individuals (not in the same household);
- meet income restrictions. For workers providing direct care to COVID patients, max income is $350,000 (joint filers) and $175,000 (single). For all other workers, the limits are $185,000 (joint) and $85,000 (single); and
- did not collect more than 20 weeks of unemployment benefits from 3/15/20 to 6/30/21.
Affordable Housing for All
I have heard from many of you that our severe shortage of affordable housing is a major concern. The House DFL is proposing major investments to build more affordable housing, preserve the affordable housing that we already have, provide pathways to home ownership and out of homelessness, and ensure landlords and renters are made whole. We have a golden opportunity this session to invest in solutions to create more housing options throughout the state to house a new generation of workers and their families.
My Legalizing Affordable Housing Act, HF 3256, a zoning and planning reform bill that would sweep away institutional barriers to the construction of new workforce housing, received its first hearing in the Local Government Division on Wednesday. There was so much interest in the bill that we had to continue the hearing over to next week’s meeting to accommodate all of the parties that wished to testify. We led off the hearing with powerful presentations from national and regional experts about the nature, scope and causes of our workforce housing shortage. The testimony by Prof Salim Furth of George Mason University was compelling. Dr Furth performed the data analysis for the StarTribune’s big exclusionary zoning expose, last summer and the information from that analysis which he presented at the hearing was an indictment of the poor state of our current zoning framework. This recent MinnPost story does a good job of discussing the issues. The combination of my zoning reform bill and the additional funding will create a truly comprehensive approach to addressing our workforce housing shortage.
Social Security Taxation
I will be a co-author on a bill that will be introduced on Monday to raise the income level at which state income taxes on Social Security income kick in. At present, no one earning less than $62,090 pays any state income tax on their Social Security income. This bill would raise that limit to $80,000, sparing a larger swath of middle income retirees from any taxation of their social security benefits. Even with the current limit, most retirees pay no income tax on their social security income.
Keep in Touch
Don’t hesitate to reach out if I can provide any assistance. Please follow me on my Facebook page for further updates and invite your friends and family to do so as well.
Thanks for the honor of representing you at the Capitol.
Sincerely,
Steve Elkins
Representative, District 49B
Minnesota House of Representatives