State leaders celebrate frontline worker bonuses, insurance deal

Nurses and employers gathered with state leaders Monday at the Minnesota Capitol to celebrate the biggest accomplishment so far this legislative session, which will result in hundreds of thousands of pandemic frontline workers receiving payments of roughly $750 and prevent major tax increases for businesses.

It was a moment workers and business owners had waited months to see, as lawmakers were unable to broker a deal until the final weeks of a legislative session that has been tinged with election-year politics.

"That $750 to the median income of Minnesota, that equals a month's rent. That equals groceries ... That's money that can be put back into their savings accounts. So it is important," said Minnesota Nurses Association President Mary Turner as she tried to hold back tears. "But we still have work to do."

Nurses, longterm care workers, educators, first responders, child care providers, grocery store staff and others who could not work from home when COVID-19 hit will be eligible for the bonuses, DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman said. Legislators estimated 667,000 people will qualify for the payments, totaling $500 million.

Monday's bill signing was ceremonial. DFL Gov. Tim Walz had already signed the deal into law on Friday, the culmination of a long-fought dispute between legislative leaders.

"This is a positive. I'm really grateful to the legislators who worked on this and all the folks who kept the faith. It does bode well," Walz said. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan called the action an "incredibly important first step" but said they also need to reach deals on earned sick time, paid family and medical leave and bolstering child care.

It will likely take 10 to 12 weeks before checks to frontline workers start going out, Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Roslyn Robertson said. A vendor will create a system over the next couple of weeks where workers can apply for the money, then there will be a application period, she said.

A lot of people don't know they are eligible, Walz said, and the state will be working to get the word out about the money and how to apply.

Business owners Raji Eid and Tez Hailu were standing alongside the governor at Monday's event at the Capitol. The deal lawmakers reached last week includes $2.7 million to replenish the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund that was drained by the flood of applications for unemployment benefits as workers were laid off during the pandemic.

Many businesses saw their potential unemployment insurance tax rates go way up this year to refill the depleted trust fund. Walz and Senate Republicans had been pushing throughout the legislative session for a quick deal to channel some of the state's projected budget surplus of nearly $9.3 billion into the fund to prevent the tax rate hikes.

While business owners anxiously awaited a resolution on their tax bills, worker advocacy groups that have been pressing for checks were also in legislative limbo.

Legislators had agreed last June to spend $250 million on "worker bonuses" for employees who had to do critical in-person work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But negotiations over exactly who should get the money, and how much they should receive, broke down in the fall. Headed into the legislative session, Democrats were pushing for a much bigger sum: they wanted the state to spend $1 billion and give out $1,500 checks. The new law is a compromise approach, state leaders said.

"This agreement took much longer than any of us had hoped for. But at the same time, I think the outcome was probably better than most expected," GOP Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller said.

Businesses had to submit their payroll tax payments for the first quarter of the year by April 30, state officials said. Employers who paid at the higher rates can get an automatic credit in their unemployment insurance account, which will go toward next quarter's payment, Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said. That will land in accounts in roughly seven to 10 days, he said.

However, business owners who want the state to write them a check will have to wait longer, he said.

"If you need the cash now, it's going to take us — we don't know, a month, two months," Grove said.

Eid and Hailu's company, EIDS Cleaning & Consulting, has been running on a shoestring budget, Hailu said, and the two said a major tax increase would have had a significant blow.

"We would have been done. Honestly. Literally, it would have been impossible," said Eid.