ST. PAUL, Minn. – Governor Tim Walz stepped out of his son’s high school volleyball game to sign the combined Hero Checks and unemployment insurance plan. “I wanted to sign this important bill the minute we got it passed.” The Hero Checks provision, with $750 each to frontline workers during the pandemic, had been a Walz priority. Originally the proposed $1 billion, but sum was halved in the legislative process. Republicans championed the $2.7 billion plan to replenish the state unemployment fund. The fund was depleted during the pandemic. Business interests, mostly small retailers represented by local chambers of commerce, pressed for the replenishment funds. Otherwise they would have been taxed for the sum to keep the fund afloat.
