After the Minnesota legislature failed to send $841 million to local governments during its special session, five groups representing 853 cities asked Gov. Tim Walz to ship it through other means.
Minnesota cities haven’t received the federal funding distributed to each state, 88 days after President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, told The Center Square in an email that his group preferred the legislature create the distribution formula so each party and region could submit input.
Peterson encouraged Walz to distribute the money through the Legislative Advisory Commission according to the terms of Senate File 47.
Under that agreement, counties would share $467 million, cities will get $350 million, and towns will receive almost $24 million.
“While not perfect, we think the ‘deal’ that the legislature purportedly had was a pretty good compromise,” Peterson said.
Peterson said cities need the money to support residents, local governments and local businesses impacted by COVID-19 and the government’s response by shuttering industries.
Many cities had to unexpectedly dish out large amounts of money to keep providing services safely and remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Whether the city is in a region that has seen a significant rate of infection or a relatively small infection rate cities had been spending money to secure [personal protective equipment], for technology to enable city staff to work from home and conduct public meetings in a transparent way, purchase additional cleaning supplies for municipal facilities, pay overtime for personnel working on COVID-19 response, and to otherwise adjust city services to promote public health and adhere to social distancing protocols,” Peterson said.
Peterson said the money should be able to be spent across a wide range of public safety, such as paying first responders.
Local governments’ budgets are pressured because of unknown property taxes, sales taxes and other revenue, so being allowed to spend this money on salaries “would relieve a significant amount of stress,” he said.
Peterson urged Walz to act “as soon as possible” because the CARES Act limits the spending time frame between March 1, 2020, and Dec. 30, 2020, after which unspent money would be returned to the federal government.
“As soon as cities know how much money they might receive they can make plans and begin to have a better understanding of what the impacts on their budgets the pandemic will end up having,” Peterson said.
“It’s been almost 3 months since Congress passed the CARES Act, it’s simply time to get the money in the hands of local governments,” he said.
Minnesota Office of Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans; House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park; and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake also signed the letter.
Walz’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
