COVID “hero pay” checks going out, Democrats say not large enough
State officials have made their final determinations and say roughly one-million-25-thousand Minnesota workers will each receive COVID “hero pay” checks for $487.45. Lunds and Byerly’s meatcutter Keith Farr says:
“It’s better than nothing… I would have liked it to be a little more but, it is what it is. Everyone deserved it, that worked at the time.”
Some Democratic lawmakers say the hero bonuses *should* be larger. Representative Rob Ecklund from International Falls:
“I don’t think it’s enough…. I think if you look at that, our initial ‘ask’ of a billion (dollars), we were pretty close to what the needs were.”
Democrats convinced Senate Republicans to double the initial appropriation, but G-O-P lawmakers wouldn’t go higher than 500 million dollars. Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller says Republicans will continue fighting for permanent tax cuts “so every working Minnesotan will see a ‘bonus payment’ in every paycheck.”
