REGIONAL- Nearly 15 months after they were first authorized, “hero payments” to over a million of Minnesota’s frontline workers of the COVID pandemic started going out Wednesday. The $487 payments are about a third less than estimated just four months ago due to overwhelming demand.
Over 1.2 million Minnesotans applied during the two-month summer application period, nearly double the number that state officials originally projected would receive the payments. Even after about 214,000 applications were disqualified in August for various reasons, that still left 1,025,655 Minnesotans to split equally a $500 million pot originally anticipated to be shared by only 667,000.
Individual payments were projected to be $750 before the summer crush of applications.
Still, Gov. Tim Walz was quick to tout the issuance of the first payments in a press release on Monday.
“I’m grateful for the work Minnesotans did to help people across our state stay healthy and safe through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Governor Walz. “Frontline workers are an important part of the fabric of our state and helped us continue functioning during the pandemic. Now, I’m proud to say these workers will receive $487.45 in recognition from the State of Minnesota.”