ST. PAUL – The Minnesota House on Friday approved on a 124-5 vote legislation to repay Minnesota’s unemployment insurance trust fund deficit and reverse tax hikes employers in the state faced despite a $10 billion surplus.
Rep. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls said he was pleased to see the House take action on this bill, which provides $2.7 billion to fully repay the trust fund which was depleted with more people out of work during the pandemic.
“Workers in our state have faced incredible challenges the last couple of years and many employers were unable to survive the pandemic, especially with restrictions placed upon them,” Rasmusson said. “Those that were able to survive have been working to recoup their losses and this tax increase would have made that an even steeper hill to climb. It is good we spared employers the injustice of paying higher taxes because a pandemic and mandates sidelined workers.”
Senate Republicans approved a clean bill to rectify this issue in February, with broad, bipartisan support. House Democrats delayed action until late April, when they added more than $1 billion in other funding to the bill. Rasmusson said this change complicated matters and delayed final approval, costing state taxpayers $50,000 in interest for every day the legislation languished.
“This bill should have been on the governor’s desk months ago, with seemingly everyone placing urgency on this issue and wanting to get this done for our employers,” Rasmusson said. “But House Democrats remained the outlier, causing uncertainty and added costs to taxpayers by using this issue as a political pawn.”
The bill also includes $500 million in payments to frontline workers – approximately $750 per person – and $190 million is provided to Minnesota Management & Budget for continued COVID-19 expenses. Another measure allows just one legislative body to reject an expenditure instead of the current requirement for both bodies to object.
The Senate approved the revamped bill earlier Friday and it now is in the hands of Gov. Tim Walz for enactment.
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