Legislative Update – April 29, 2022

Dear Neighbors,

We continue our work on the House Floor advancing pieces of our House DFL budget to help Minnesotans address rising costs, strengthen public education, support workers and small businesses, and other bold actions to ensure everyone can have a brighter future. I invite you to follow along with our work; House Public Information Services has a variety of nonpartisan resources including streaming video of floor sessions, regular recaps of activity, and informative resources about state government.

Supporting Businesses and Workers

At the start of the pandemic, a historic number of Minnesotans relied on Unemployment Insurance. Since then, the UI Trust Fund has been depleted. At the same time, another group of workers went to their jobs, even during the pandemic’s darkest days, to keep our state running, even though they faced a higher exposure to COVID. 

The House, Senate, and Governor Walz have reached a bipartisan agreement to both deliver bonus checks to frontline workers and replenish the UI Trust Fund. This is an important compromise to both thank our frontline heroes – health care workers, first responders, child care providers, food service and retail workers, and more – for their sacrifice while helping businesses avoid a tax increase when many of them faced hardship due to no fault of their own. $500 million will be available for bonus checks – about $750 each.

The House and Senate have both approved this agreement, and Governor Walz is expected to sign the bill soon. Some businesses have already paid their first quarter taxes, and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has indicated they will give them refunds and credits.

Supporting Minnesota Students

This week, the House passed our E-12 Education budget delivering over $3 billion in investments to support students, families, public schools, and school staff. The budget invests $475 million to allow schools to hire about 1,100 more counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses, who all play a critical role in student success and development, and addresses school districts’ unfunded special education and English learner costs, known as “cross-subsidies.”

Minnesota’s excellent public schools have long been a crown jewel for our state, but we know the difficulties our districts have faced, especially as a result of the pandemic. With a historic budget surplus, students, families, and educators are counting on lawmakers to respond with investments to meet this moment.

Supporting Our Environment

This week we also invested more than $275 million to preserve our environment and natural resources for current and future generations of Minnesotans. Some legislators have referred to the Omnibus Environment and Natural Resources Budget as the “Omnibuzz” bill because of its measures to protect pollinators and the critical role they play in our ecosystems and food supply. The bill expands the popular Lawns to Legumes program, bans the use of certain pesticides on state lands, and allows cities to ban pesticides that are lethal to pollinators. Additionally, the bill includes measures to protect Minnesota’s animals, plants, and wildlife, invests in parks and trails, solutions to address the climate crisis, and protects Minnesotans against toxic chemicals.

Minnesotans care deeply about our environment and natural resources, and we want to preserve them for current and future generations. This budget protects our land, air, water, and wildlife and ensures every Minnesotan has equitable access to the outdoors.

Please continue to stay in touch with your viewpoints, ideas, or if I can ever be of assistance. Thank you for the honor of working as your public servant.

Sincerely,

Jen Schultz
State Representative