Sen. Melisa Franzen (SD49) Update: March 19, 2021

Weekly Review Video

A weekly message from your Senator

Dear Constituents and Friends,

Today, March 19th is the second legislative deadline. We continue to hear bills in committee and on the Senate Floor. Finance. Committees add additional hearings to make sure that bills meet deadlines. In the Human Services Reform Committee we heard 22 bills on Tuesday, after our scheduled hearing time we came back in the evening to hear additional bills.

On Monday, March 15 at 12:00 p.m. the COVID-19 guidance updates went into effect.  Here are the newest provisions:

Provisions to make it easier to safely gather with family:

• Social gatherings: Up to 50 people outdoors or 15 people for indoor gatherings, both without household limits.
• Youth sports: Pod size increasing to 50 for outdoor activities.
• Religious services: Remove occupancy limits, but social distancing required.
• Celebrations: Follow venue guidance.

Provisions to support small businesses:

• Bars and restaurants: Increasing allowable occupancy to 75%, up from 50%, with a limit of 250 people. The limits apply separately indoors and outdoors. Bar seating increases to parties of 4.
• Salons/barbers: Removing the occupancy limit, but social distancing required.
• Gyms/fitness centers/pools: Increasing allowable occupancy to 50%, up from 25%. Outdoor classes can increase to 50 people. 
  Entertainment venues: Increasing allowable occupancy to 50%, up from 25%, both indoors and outdoors, with a limit of 250.

Updated long-term care visitation guidance:

This week the Minnesota Department of Health updated and expanded the long-term care visitation and outings guidance. The declining COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities along with the increased vaccination rate. This updates Minnesota to conform with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance. It is effective immediately and includes the following recommendations:

Updated Outing Guidance

• Residents who are fully vaccinated do not have to quarantine after non-medically necessary outings unless they spend 15 minutes or more in a 24-hour period within 6 feet of someone who can spread COVID-19.
• Residents who are fully vaccinated may gather indoors or outdoors with other people who are fully vaccinated.
• Residents who are fully vaccinated can visit indoors or outdoors with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 infection.
• If the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with the persons they are visiting.
• If a resident who is fully vaccinated chooses to attend a place of worship or other group event, or to shop or eat in public establishments, the resident should follow the core principles of COVID-19 infection prevention. MDH strongly encourages attending places of worship or other group events only when the 14-day county percent positivity rate is below 5%.
• Unvaccinated residents who leave the building to gather with others may be required to quarantine when they return. At this time, quarantine recommendations remain unchanged for an unvaccinated resident, regardless of the vaccination status of those with whom they gather.

Updated Facility Visitation Guidance

• Residents should be able to have private visits.
• If a resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitted face mask (if tolerated) and performing hand hygiene before and after.
• While taking a person-centered approach, outdoor visitation is preferred even when the resident and visitor are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, because outdoor visits generally pose a lower risk of spreading the disease. Visits should be held outdoors whenever feasible.
• Compassionate care visits, essential caregivers, and visits required under state and federal disability rights laws, should be allowed at all times, regardless of a resident’s vaccination status, the county’s COVID-19 positivity rate, or an outbreak.
• Facilities in medium or high positivity counties are encouraged to offer testing to visitors as feasible.  Visitors should also be encouraged to get vaccinated when they have the opportunity. While visitor testing and vaccination can help prevent the spread of COVID-19, neither testing nor vaccination should be required of visitors as a condition of visitation, nor should proof of such be requested.
• Screening questions must now include whether the visitor has had close contact in the prior 14 days with someone who is infected with COVID-19 (regardless of whether the visitor is vaccinated). If the visitor answers yes, the visitor should not be allowed to enter.
• Vaccinations and the slowing of coronavirus infections are allowing us to safely expand visitation and allow indoor visits that bring families and residents together. Minnesotans can help continue the positive momentum by taking the right steps to prevent spread of COVID-19. These include masking up, keeping social distance, staying home when sick, and getting tested when appropriate.

This week Minnesota hit two million total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered. We reached less than a month after reaching one million doses, which took almost two months. Minnesota continues to be a national leader in getting vaccine doses into Minnesotans arms and continues to rank in the top ten among states for percentage of doses received that have been administered.

Minnesota ranks 6th in the U.S. in a CDC study of county level vaccination coverage for residents in high Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) counties. Minnesota is also one of five states that has higher vaccination coverage in high SVI counties than in low SVI counties. 

Minnesota continues to expand the network of places to get the COVID-19 vaccination. Along with providers and pharmacies, Minnesota has increased the number of Community Vaccination sites with increased capacity. A new site launched this week in St. Cloud. Early this year in the Senate we passed bipartisan bill to authorize qualified dentists to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. This was passed into law and should help prepare for the increased vaccine supply.

Governor’s revised budget proposal

Governor Walz released revisions to his budget proposal following a significant change in the state’s fiscal outlook in the February 2021 budget forecast. Governor Walz released an initial budget proposal on January 26, based upon the November budget forecast projection of a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. The February forecast showed a positive balance of $1.2 billion in primarily one-time dollars. The budget proposal remains focused on helping Minnesota recover from COVID-19, including providing significant funding to help students recover from the loss of learning that occurred over the past year through summer school. 

The revised budget proposal includes a reduced proposal for tax increases, including removing a proposal to increase sales taxes on cigarettes, as well as a lower corporate tax rate than previously proposed. The total tax increases are lowered from $1.6 billion in the original proposal to around $670 million. Also, the governor’s revised budget would no longer rely on funds from the state’s budget reserve.  

Governor Walz also proposed tax relief on Paycheck Protection Program loans amounting up to $350,000. That proposal would provide relief for approximately 90% of businesses that received loans. The revised proposal would also forgive taxes on up to $10,200 of surplus unemployment insurance payments provided for in the federal CARES Act in 2020. In total, the revised budget increases the governor’s proposed tax cuts for working families and small businesses to over $1 billion.  

The governor’s budget is expected to see a third revision as the state reviews the funds that will be available to the state from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that President Biden signed into law last week. The ARP is expected to provide around $2.6 billion in federal dollars for Minnesota.

University of Minnesota Board of Regents

The University of Minnesota will have four new Regents, including two additional women, after the House and Senate met this week to fill four positions up for re-election. 

The 12-member board has eight seats representing Minnesota’s congressional districts and four at-large seats. The seats up this year were in Congressional Districts 1, 4, 6 and 7. 

Regents elected were:

• CD 1: Dr. Ruth Johnson (replacing Regent Randy Simonson, who did run for re-election)
• CD 4: James Farnsworth (replacing Regent Richard Beeson who did not re for re-election)
• CD 6: Kodi Verhalen (replacing Regent Michael Hsu who was defeated in his re-election bid)
• CD 7: Doug Huebsch (replacing Regent Thomas Anderson who did not run for re-election)

James Farnsworth was the surprise election as he had not been forwarded to the full Legislature for re-election by the joint House and Senate Higher Education Committees and was nominated from the floor during the joint convention. He defeated Daryl Alkire and Karen Schanfield. 

Johnson defeated Val Aarsvold; Verhalen defeated Hsu and Huebsch defeated Michael Yost. 

Sincerely,

Melisa