Republicans set to roll out plan to replenish COVID Unemployment Insurance

Minnesota Senate Republicans roll out their plan today (noon) to replenish Minnesota’s COVID-depleted Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which they say will avoid harmful tax increases on businesses. Lawmakers have been tossing around the idea of doing something early in the legislative session — and last week House Speaker, Democrat Melissa Hortman suggested as a way to break the continuing deadlock over COVID bonuses for front-line workers, taking one billion dollars from the budget surplus for that, and in exchange giving Republicans a billion dollars for the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.  House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Daudt doesn’t like the idea saying “That’s sort of holding hostage and… if we have that kind of a session, it’s gonna be a failure.”