Dear Friends and Neighbors,
On Thursday, Governor Walz announced that he is releasing Federal CARES Act dollars via executive order. This is the latest example of Governor Walz usurping the role of the legislature and another reminder that it is time for his unilateral peacetime emergency powers to end.
During the recent special session, the four caucuses in the House and Senate agreed to distribute the $841 million in federal CARES Act funding to local counties, cities, and townships. The Senate passed the bipartisan compromise bill with overwhelming support on a vote of 62-4. Unfortunately, the governor broke the agreement, went back on his word, and forced House Democrats to add over $150 million in unrelated spending to the bill, even though we already have a deficit in our state budget.
I am extremely disappointed that House Democrats and Governor Walz prioritized increasing state spending over ensuring local governments receive the funding they need. Many of our local cities and counties plan to use the CARES Act dollars to set up grant programs for local businesses that have suffered because of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Communities and counties in our area could have received this funding over a week ago, and instead, the governor and House Democrats played politics and delayed these critically important funds.
Update on Frontier Communications Settlement
Former and present Frontier Communications subscribers are encouraged to apply for a rebate or bill credit based on past Frontier service quality and reliability problems no later than July 20th.
The state of Minnesota recently reached a settlement with Frontier which resulted in the following categories for which a former or current Frontier customer may claim a refund or bill credit:
- Telephone was out-of-service and not restored within 24 hours.
- Incorrect billing for service related to vacation rate.
- Late fees charged for phone service despite bill being paid on or before due date.
- Frontier did not cancel telephone service upon request, resulting in additional charges.
- Charged to receive a paper bill for telephone service.
- Charged for three-way calling without subscribing to the service.
- Wrongly charged for directory assistance or 411 calls.
- Charged an early termination fee on or after January 1, 2016, without having signed an agreement.
- Inappropriately charged fees to reconnect telephone service.
- Telephone disconnected without proper notice.
- Refusal to install local telephone service.
- Inability to use the telephone due to static, cross talk, or other notice.
- Installation delay of more than 3 business days for primary local service line.
- Same trouble on the same line within 30 days.
- Frontier missed a repair appointment for telephone service.
- Customer service representation claimed no trouble report exists from an earlier call regarding the same phone issue.
Applications for refund or bill credit are available by clicking here.
Have a great day,
Sondra