Legislative Update, June 23, 2020

June 23, 2020

Violence in Our Cities

I’m shocked and dismayed to hear what has happened over the weekend. Just in Minneapolis, Chicago, and the “Chop” zone of Seattle, 16 people were killed, and 100 hurt in shootings. All of these are cities talking about defunding or disbanding the police departments.

The citizens of or cities need to feel safe. The Minnesota Senate passed and proposed reforms to procedures and policies to reform and improve law enforcement. It was killed by extremists that want to defund and disband the police. We should be able to get rid of the very few bad actors, while allowing the majority that are good cops, to protect and serve their communities.

We saw what happens when the police are told to stand down, and are pulled out of communities. The ensuing riots and lawlessness destroyed whole sections of Minneapolis. We need to address the policy, training, and removal of the bad cops while allowing the good to protect us all.

Small Business Grant Program

A small business grant program to aid small businesses was passed by the legislature during the special session. It will provide $10,000 grants to small businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees are eligible.

Applications are now open: mnhouse.gop/SmallBizGrants

Additional requirements include:

• $18 million for businesses with six or fewer full-time employees
• $10 million for minority business enterprises
• $2.5 million for veteran-owned businesses
• $2.5 million for women-owned businesses
• $2.5 million for operators of indoor retail and food markets with an ethnic cultural emphasis

The application period began on Tuesday, June 23 and close at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 2 to fulfill the 10-day period required by the law. A randomized, computer-generated lottery process will be used to select eligible businesses that will receive awards. All awards will be administered by qualified local and regionally based nonprofit agencies, and the grant funds can be used for working capital to support payroll expenses, rent, mortgage payments, utility bills, and other similar business expenses.

To be eligible, businesses must have a permanent physical location in Minnesota and be majority owned by a permanent resident of Minnesota. Businesses must be able to demonstrate hardship as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Additional eligibility requirements and application information can be found online at DEED’s Small Business Relief Grants page.

Special Session Review

The one-week special session came to a close early Saturday morning as the House, Senate, and Governor Walz were unable to reach agreement on a variety of big issues including a bonding bill, police reform, and federal CARES Act funding for local communities and counties.

Despite the failure to get any of the big-ticket items across the finish line, we did approve a handful of smaller, less controversial bills related to COVID-19. Including the grant program mentioned above.

I was most disappointed about the failure to pass federal CARES Act funding. In the week leading up to special session, all four legislative caucuses came to an agreement on how to allocate the $841 million. This simple funding bill ultimately fell apart because Governor Walz forced House Democrats to add unrelated provisions from his supplemental budget request to what was originally a clean bill.

Counties and communities in our area would have been set to receive millions of dollars to help pay for COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 response for hospitals, PPE for front-line workers, financial support to local businesses, and funding to help keep local governments solvent as they deal with extra expenses as a result of the pandemic.

According to Senator Gazelka, Governor Walz personally intervened to block a deal that was coming together at the 11th hour overnight on Friday night/early Saturday morning, and as a result the bill was left unfinished when the legislature adjourned early Saturday morning.

This is incredibly disappointing, and I hope that these federal dollars can be allocated in short order, our local communities cannot afford to wait much longer.

Please Stay in Touch

Please continue to stay in touch to share your thoughts or concerns. My phone number is 651-296-9236 or you can email me at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

Have a great week!

Duane

247 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, MN 55155
ph: 651.296.9236