By Stephen
Montemayor
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. Consider this your weekly
Hot Dish halftime show.
It's tribunal time again: Gov. Tim Walz, Senate Majority Leader Jeremy
Miller and House Speaker Melissa Hortman were
meeting behind closed doors Tuesday but did not yield progress on the state's
unemployment insurance trust fund and a deal pandemic frontline worker pay.
They'll meet again next week, likely Thursday.
"The good news is Minnesota is in a strong financial
position," Walz told reporters after the meeting. "We have the
capacity to do many of the priorities that all of us have. It's not an either
or, it's and."
The state has a March 15 deadline to pass a bill to replenish
its unemployment insurance fund. Hortman said she believed there could be extra
time to get it done, but Miller disagreed.
Walz also signed on to a letter with five other governors on
Tuesday imploring congressional leadership to pass legislation that would
suspend the federal gas tax amid soaring prices at the pump and Russia's
invasion of Ukraine. Walz told reporters that he was also pen to temporarily
suspending Minnesota's state gas tax – likely around the summer driving season.
The governor said suspending the gas tax would cost about $77 million per
month.
This comes after President Joe Biden announced a U.S. ban on all Russian oil imports.
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