GOP plan limits ‘hero pay’ to 200,000 people
A Republican proposal for distributing $250 million in pandemic worker pay would limit eligibility to select health workers, first responders and corrections officers.
Three members of the Frontline Worker Pay Working Group staked out their position Thursday that would award $1,200 bonus checks to about 200,000 people.
It’s a more limited pool than Democrats on the panel are pushing for, and it sparked an angry response from some workers left out.
The limits have to do with levels of risk, said Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake.
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“There are those who went above and beyond the call of duty,” Kiffmeyer said.”They had sustained, extremely high risk that set them as a group in a very special recognition that is needed for them. But not only because what was done but what we need them to do.”
Food service workers and custodians are among those who say they’d be unfairly excluded under the Republican plan.
Troy Bowman is a Minneapolis janitor who said service workers like him were also exposed to the virus as they kept reporting for duty. He said smaller checks distributed among a broader pool is the way to go.
“I feel like something would be better than nothing,” Bowman said. And what they’re showing us and telling us is we get nothing. We did exactly what the nurses and them did. We suffered, we sacrificed, too.”
The task force working on a plan expects to meet again in early October. Their recommendation will eventually be put to a vote of the Legislature in a possible fall special session.
Democrats on the working group said the GOP plan diminishes the roles of others who chipped in during the pandemic, from stocking store shelves to watching children of essential workers to cleaning spaces.
Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said front-line workers of all stripes are deserving.
“It is past time to finish this work for those who went to work, kept us healthy, alive and our economy moving,” Murphy said. “Let’s complete our work, clear the deck of extraneous politics and get this money out to Minnesota’s workers.”
Gov. Tim Walz has also proposed a $10 million aid package for farmers hit by this year’s drought that he wants considered in a special session.
But Walz has said a condition of calling lawmakers back to St. Paul is that the Senate not vote to oust any of his agency heads. Some majority Republican senators have been critical of the performance of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm and have suggested her job could be in jeopardy. If the Senate votes not to confirm a commissioner’s appointment, that commissioner is out of a job.
The Senate removed two Walz commissioners during special sessions last summer — Commerce Commissioner Steve Kelley and Labor and Industry Commissioner Peggy Leppink. Pollution Control Agency head Laura Bishop resigned earlier this year as the Senate was preparing to vote on her confirmation.