House Passes New Covid-19 Economic Assistance Package

Dear Neighbors,

House Passes New Covid-19 Economic Assistance Package

Yesterday, we met for our 7th special session of the year to pass an assistance package that will help our most vulnerable neighbors, and local businesses stay afloat during this ongoing crisis. The DFL led the way in designing this package and had to fight hard for this aid, particularly the unemployment aid extension. True to our bipartisan nature we managed to find a path that works for both sides of the aisle while also being a victory for our entire state.Here are a few of the key pieces of the Covid-19 Economic Assistance Package:

1. Extend Unemployment Benefits: Provides up to 13 additional weeks in unemployment benefits for MN workers who have exhausted all federal and state benefits. There are an estimated 100,000 MN workers who could qualify for this extension, showing how needed this extension is.
2. Business Assistance Grants: Provides $216.5 million from the General Fund in grants to restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters and many other entities directly affected by the executive orders and the pandemic. It is estimated that these grants will be able to assist over 6,000 businesses that have been hurt by Covid-19.
   1. Under the bill, grants will be provided from the state to individual businesses through three buckets of assistance:
      1. Bucket #1: Dept. of Revenue payments to restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and gyms ($88 million). These businesses do not have to apply for a grant. Rather, they will receive a check from the state based on their eligibility and size.
      2. Bucket #2: DEED grants to movie theaters and large convention centers ($14 million). Grant applications will be handled through DEED.
      3. Bucket #3: Grants from counties to other affected businesses, including hotels, museums, arcades and live theater venues ($114.8 million). These grants and how they are distributed will be determined by the counties separately.
3. Certain Fees Waived for Hospitality Industry: This is another straight-forward practical action we can take to help ease the financial burden our local businesses are facing. While this is a smaller portion of the total relief, it should go a long way towards helping these vulnerable businesses.

This aid is a much needed lifeline for many in our state, but it won’t help everyone who needs it. While this certainly is a win, our state, and the entire nation, desperately need congressional Republicans to come to the table and agree to deliver federal aid before it is too late.

Brad Tabke, State Representative | Rep.Brad.Tabke@house.mn

Addie Miller, Legislative Assistant | adeline.miller@house.mn