Action Step - Support Restaurants and Retail

We stand in support of the Governor's decision to grant a 1 month extension on the Sales and Use tax due Mar 20th. More is needed and we believe the Mayor and Governor are considering options. Reach out to them. Below is the text we are sending to the Governor and Mayor and our City Council Representatives. Feel free to use it. Also there is a link to a petition circulating and a good article about that in the Mpls/STP Business Journal. Check out the Petition here.

Governor Walz and Mayor Carter,

Thank you for your leadership in response to your constituents regarding the Sales and Use tax extensions. This is a good first step but we ask for a full reprieve of this tax and further resources.

As you know the restaurant and retail community has responded to your call to change operations as part of the overall effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.  We have shut down our dining rooms and we are limiting human interactions in processing take-out orders.  We’re reminding our employees to protect themselves and we’re doing everything we can to be good members of the Minneapolis/St. Paul and Minnesota communities. But our businesses need your help. 

Our restaurant and hospitality businesses are all notoriously low margin, and many of our employees are living paycheck to paycheck.  Many of us are going above and beyond to pay benefits to employees even if they aren’t working; we’re urging our employees to apply for unemployment compensation.  We need help from the City and the State to stay afloat. The immediate step that the State and City have taken to provide relief to extend the deadline on Sales and Use tax, which otherwise would be due this Friday, March 20, is a good step. We earnestly ask for a full reprieve on that tax so that that money can be more effectively deployed to help businesses and their employees stay afloat in this time of need.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have a wonderful, vibrant community of businesses. We hope that is still the case after this crisis.  Please do everything you can to protect this community.

Original text and action from: