Vaccines for Owatonna Manufacturing Businesses Coming Soon

Manufacturing businesses in Owatonna, and elsewhere, are in line for their employees to get their turn at COVID-19 vaccines soon. The Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism (OACCT) indicates in this week's Tuesday Talk e-newsletter, "expect your turn on vaccines to come quickly, the state is telling us it could be less than two weeks and your employees will be up on the list."

The chamber included a link to the Vaccine Connector tool that the state has created to allow people to track their eligibility of when they can receive their vaccine.

Tuesday Talk also states information for industry to share with their employees will be made available, "Vaccine marketing materials for businesses created by Mayo Health Systems will be provided to members soon."

OACCT invites service-based businesses impacted by the pandemic to join a Zoom call Tuesday, March 16 at 7:30 am. Email chamber president Brad Meier at bmeier@owatonna.org for a link to the meeting.

Meier is keeping an eye on the state legislature's addressing of the tax question surrounding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). He retweeted results of a vote in the Minnesota Senate Thursday.

Senator John Jasinski (R-Faribault) stated through an email Thursday, "These businesses and workers played by the rules and did everything they could to survive the pandemic and Gov. Walz's business closures. They have endured hard enough times. With our state budget picture in such good shape, we have an easy opportunity to help these businesses and workers get some relief."

The bill passed contains two key parts, according to the press release from the senator's office. It exempts PPP loans from state taxes and "also allows Minnesotans who collected additional COVID unemployment benefits from the federal government to subtract a portion of those benefits on their income taxes this year."