Lawmakers Visit St. Cloud In Renewed Push for Frontline Worker Bonus Pay

(KNSI) — Minnesota state legislators came to St. Cloud Friday to make another push for frontline worker pandemic bonus pay.

A proposal, updated this week, calls for $1 billion to be given to workers deemed essential but couldn’t work from home, exposing them to COVID-19. A previous proposal called for $250 million, but Senator Aric Putnam explains the $700 million increase was pitched when the Minnesota Management and Budget Office announced a record $7.7 billion surplus, saying, “The original agreement was for $250 million, but when the surplus came about, and we realized that the surplus was a function of the people who went back to work to keep the economy alive. A lot of us sort of hoped that we could expand it a little bit and show as much love as we could to as many people as possible.”

He said not everyone will be getting the bonus pay, but those who do get it will all get the same amount, and “everyone would get a pretty large amount.”

One of the ideas was to focus on people directly exposed to COVID-19 as part of their jobs, such as nurses or corrections officers. Another was expanding that to include people like the bus drivers who got those workers to their jobs. It’s also capped at a certain income level.

One potential hangup with the package would be where the money comes from. Putnam says everyone is on board with frontline worker bonus pay, but the use of the budget surplus to do it could delay the payments, and he says they want to get as much money out to those who deserve it as soon as they can.

___