Today, the House met in session to vote on a few critical bills. At the heart of what we are trying to do in these final few weeks is ensure the safety and economic security of all Minnesotans during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can watch a recording of the Session here. Here are two very important bills we passed today.
Pay for Hourly School Employees
We passed a bill that requires school districts and charter schools to compensate all employees for time that they were scheduled but did not work during the distance learning period. The funds to pay these workers have already been appropriated to the schools, so this bill would not impact our current budget. Shakopee Public School’s hourly school employees play an integral part in the education of our children and it's important that we support them through this difficult time. These are members of our community who devote their career to supporting our children. This bill makes sound fiscal sense and is critical to helping all of these workers through this crisis.
Election Security and Facilitation of Vote by Mail
We also passed an election security bill that allows Minnesota to utilize federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds. This bill consolidates federal and state matching appropriations intended to address election cybersecurity and COVID-19 resiliency, and also includes policy provisions intended to give counties and cities greater flexibility in utilizing absentee voting in the 2020 primary and general elections. Our elections are under threat from foreign powers and COVID-19. With these funds we will ensure that our elections are safe and secure for everyone.
Other Information
- Rep. Tabke is addressing the Shakopee City Council at 7pm and Scott County Board of Commissioners at 9:30am with Sen. Pratt tomorrow. You can watch the meeting with the Shakopee City Council here, and the Scott County Board of Commissioners here.
Brad Tabke, State Representative | Rep.Brad.Tabke@house.mn
Eric Petersen, Legislative Assistant | Eric.Petersen@house.mn