Sen. Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) and Rep. Gene Pelowski (DFL Winona) at the 2019 Bridge Dedication Ceremony
ST. PAUL, Minn. (KWNO)-Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) and Rep. Gene Pelowski (DFL Winona) are calling on the Minnesota House to fully replenish the state’s unemployment fund.
The fund is running at a $1.2 billion deficit after being heavily used throughout the COVID pandemic. Senate Republicans and Gov. Tim Walz have proposed using $2.7 billion of the state’s $7.7 billion budget surplus to refill the fund.
House Democrats this week countered with a proposal for $1 billion to go into the fund and to allocate $1 billion for bonuses for frontline workers. Rep. Gene told KWNO Thursday he authored a bill that would replenish the unemployment fund separate from the front-line worker COVID bonuses.
“If you want to symbolically tie it, all right but it’s time now to get individual bills to the floor and it’s time to make that account solvent,” said Pelowski.
House Democrats and Senate Republicans have disagreed on funding amounts for frontline worker bonuses. Miller said increasing bonus funding while decreasing proposed money for the unemployment fund is a non-starter.
“It should not be tied to something else,” Miller said during an interview on KWNO’s In the Know Thursday morning. “This isn’t something to wheel and deal or try to negotiate. This is a need for the state and it needs to get done as quickly as possible.”
Pelowski and Miller say businesses will be hit with a new tax if the legislature does not properly refund the unemployment trust.
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