Verbal Agreement Reached on Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund Replenishment, Frontline Worker Pay

(KNSI) — The Minnesota Senate, House, and Governor Tim Walz have come to a verbal agreement on the unemployment insurance fund and money for frontline worker pay.

Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller says, “It includes $2.7 billion, so fully refilling the unemployment trust fund account. It will also include $500 million for frontline workers, and very important we are going to use all of the federal ARPA dollars this was really important for the Senate.”

Minnesota received $8.5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funding.

An agreement was in place with the House and Senate for $250 million for frontline worker pay last year, but the two sides couldn’t agree on who should get the money. Once the major budget surplus was projected to be of historic proportions, Democrats asked for $1 billion in surplus money to be used. The Senate wasn’t all in on that idea because they didn’t think it was fair to pick winners and losers.

The bonus structure will be announced later.

Currently, Minnesota is paying the federal government $50,000 per day due to the unemployment trust fund deficit.

If the deal weren’t done by April 30th, it would have triggered an automatic increase in payroll tax contributions for employers.

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