SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Monday night, the Minnesota House approved a new economic assistance package designed to help small businesses, workers, and other Minnesotans struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation includes direct financial assistance to the hardest hit businesses and helps protect economic security for workers by extending unemployment benefits.
“The threat of COVID-19 remains dire, but so too is the economic disaster small businesses, workers, and families have experienced this year,” said Rep. Julie Sandstede (DFL – Hibbing). “Our small Main Street small businesses, the establishments that help our rural economies thrive, need our help right now. This bill is by no means perfect, and doesn’t address every economic problem caused by COVID-19 while we wait for our partners in Washington to hopefully step up and do their part. But it offers our businesses some much-needed support until we can get the virus under control and return to business as usual, and I’m proud we could come together on a bipartisan basis to get this done.”
The legislation delivers a $216 million package of economic assistance to small businesses. Of this, $88 million comes in the form of direct financial aid to businesses experiencing economic harm due to the pandemic. Those eligible businesses include restaurants, bars, coffee shops, breweries, wineries and distilleries with taprooms or tasting rooms, caterers, bowling alleys, and some gyms and fitness centers. The legislation also includes $14 million worth of grants to movie theaters and large convention centers. The remaining $114.8 million will be made available to counties for grants to other affected businesses, including hotels, museums, arcades and live theater venues.
To help workers displaced as a result of the pandemic, the bill provides a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits. Without action from the Legislature, over 100,000 Minnesota workers could lose benefits on December 26 when funding under the federal CARES Act is set to expire.
The bill also waives or delays a series of fees for the hospitality industry, including 2 a.m. liquor licenses for bars, caterers that serve alcohol, wastewater permitting fees for small breweries, and certain late payment penalties for food related businesses. Finally, the legislation extends the deadline for families to apply for free and reduced-price lunch.
Information and resources, including bill language, are available on the Minnesota House’s COVID-19 webpage.