Session Update: Senate Passes Bill Adjusting LGA for Uncompensated Aid

On a vote of 35-32, the Republican-led Senate passed its response to Governor Walz’s request for a $35 million emergency account to defray costs from future emergencies like the civil unrest that occurred following the death of George Floyd in May 2020. The measure, SF 749, would allow Local Government Aid (LGA) to be used to reimburse cities and counties for unpaid mutual aid bills.

Senator Bill Weber, R-Luverne, the bill’s author, said the impetus for the measure was the recultance of some cities and counties to enter into new mutual aid agreements with the city of Minneapolis due to unpaid bills from previous support. “SF 749 offers a very basic solution to the problem as to who has to pay for a mutual agreement that a community is obligated to pay,” he said.

Speaking against the measure, Senator Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, said, "While we are debating the most appropriate way to ensure funding for law enforcement, we are ignoring the facts of what happened last year...these are the results of a broken system of public safety, of years of brutality disproportionately targeting black and brown people."