Hennepin and Ramsey county boards voted Tuesday to help property taxpayers and small business owners with mounting hardships due to COVID-19.
Each board unanimously approved stripping penalties on tax payments made up to two months past the May 15 deadline for qualifying property owners. That means they can delay payments until July 15 without fines or interest.
Also Tuesday, the Hennepin County Board approved a $2 million relief fund for small business loans. Beginning next week, qualifying businesses can apply for zero-interest loans of up to $7,500, to be repaid over 36 months.
Both Hennepin and Ramsey counties moved to help residents and businesses even as they're burning through cash to cope with the pandemic. The counties, the most populous in the state, are seeing huge costs and don't yet know how much the federal government will reimburse them.
In Hennepin County, only those with cumulative annual property tax bills of $100,000 or less are eligible to pay late without penalty; in Ramsey County, that threshold is $50,000. Those who escrow their taxes aren't eligible in either county.
"This is really just the beginning," Hennepin County Commissioner Jan Callison said. "We are way far from the end."
Hennepin County has transferred $10 million from its general fund, which is funded with tax dollars, into its depleted emergency fund for pandemic response. The county has already used more than $8 million, leaving only $1.8 million in the emergency fund.
The board voted to direct $4 million for ongoing costs related to housing the county's homeless in isolation. The money also will go toward an additional 200 hotel rooms to house high-risk residents from some of the county's largest shelters, and to set up a new 50-room hotel shelter for families with members who test positive.
