Dear Neighbors,
I hope all of you and your loved ones are staying well during these difficult times. As Minnesotans, we have come together to support one another. I am very proud of the compassion and unity our community has displayed during this difficult time. My promise to you is that I will do everything I can at the Capitol to make sure that each Minnesotan has the economic security they need to help them through this crisis. I’m confident that we will keep up the hard work and make it through this together.
Stay at Home Order Extended with Some Exceptions
Governor Walz announced that the stay at home order will be extended until May 18th, with some important alterations to help more businesses conduct commerce safely. Staying at home is working, but Minnesota still needs some more time before we can take greater steps towards normalcy. Each and every one of you who have followed the order and practiced social distancing have bought Minnesota critical time. This time has allowed Minnesota to prepare the infrastructure necessary to fully manage COVID-19. As a result, we are able to continue making progress towards gradually and thoughtfully restoring normalcy to life in our state. You can watch Governor Walz’s full briefing here.
Starting Monday, all retail establishments will be able to return to work, provided they establish a safe process to do so through curbside pick-up or delivery. All businesses must establish a comprehensive, safe operating procedure to protect the health and wellbeing of employees and customers. There is a template available here for businesses if they wish to use the state's guidance as a resource, you can also click here for more information from the Minnesota Retailers Association. With this change to the existing restrictions on business operations, up to 30,000 Minnesotans will be able to return to work safely.
In consultation with, and at the urging of hospitals and ambulatory care centers, the state halted elective surgeries in order to preserve PPE supplies. Now that the state and healthcare providers have made significant progress in obtaining PPE supplies (although we continue to compete with other states in order to reach the capacity we need), we are beginning to ease into planning for the scaled provision of elective surgeries again. If you wish to make a comment on this process, please consult the link here.
DFL Taking Action to Ensure Economic Security for all Minnesotans
The House and Senate DFL outlined our COVID-19 economic security agenda this week, which focuses on the following priority. Follow along at the #WhoCaresForUs hashtag to see the stories of how many of these priorities would lift up the Minnesotans who are keeping the state running:
- Keeping Minnesotans safe in their homes with a $100 million investment in housing assistance
- Providing economic security for our education professionals by ensuring full pay for our hourly school employees
- Providing economic security for the personal care assistants who care for vulnerable Minnesotans through a well-deserved and long-overdue wage increase
- Keeping Minnesotans connected by ensuring all Minnesotans have access to the broadband they need to go online
Helping families make ends meet by using available federal funding to boost payments for low-income working Minnesotans in the Minnesota Family Investment Program
Unemployment for Self-Employed Minnesotans
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced that it has started dispersing the initial pandemic unemployment assistance payments to self-employed, contract, and other workers in Minnesota who are not normally eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. If you are an eligible worker in these categories whose employment has been interrupted as a result of COVID-19, you can find instructions for how to apply for unemployment, and you can submit your application for unemployment insurance benefits, here.
If you have already applied, or did not follow these specific instructions when applying, you do not need to reapply for unemployment. MN DEED will be proactively reaching out to everyone regarding their eligibility. You will also receive the additional $600/week payment, and your unemployment payments will be backdated to when you first became eligible as a result of COVID-19.
Frontier Communications Settlement
Recently, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission ordered rebates and bill credits to Frontier Communication customers (both current and former) for inadequate services, based on negotiated terms between the Minnesota Department of Commerce and Frontier. Customers of Frontier should have received a direct mailing starting on April 13th, 2020 but I wanted to alert you in case you have yet to hear from Frontier. You can find more information on the settlement here.
Diffley Road Project
I know many of you are interested in the future of the Diffley Road Project. Even though bonding is tenuous at the Legislature due to the current pandemic, the process for this project is moving forward. If you are interested in commenting on the project you can visit this website. If you would like to learn more about the project and upcoming meetings you can see that here.
Stay in Touch
Please feel free to reach out to me by email at rep.sandra.masin@house.mn or by phone at 651-296-3533. If you have a friend, neighbor, or relative who wants to receive updates about the Legislature, let them know they can subscribe to my email list here. You can also follow me on Facebook here. It’s an honor to represent our community. Please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Sandra Masin
State Representative