May 24, 2022
After a broader agreement was reached between legislative leaders and the Governor one week before the end of the legislative session, there was reason to be cautiously optimistic that the legislature would pass critical legislation, including a tax, bonding, and key supplemental budget bills during the regular Session.
As Sunday’s midnight deadline approached, this outlook changed. The details proved difficult to iron out and precious few omnibus bills emerged from conference committees. An Economic Development and Jobs conference committee report was negotiated and it included EDAM’s top priority – supplemental funding for the Redevelopment Account for the fiscal year 2023.
Unfortunately, because other conference committees did not finalize key supplemental spending bills before the deadline, completed bills such as the tax bill and others, including the Economic Development and Jobs bill, were not passed along to the Governor to be signed into law.
Leaders may come back in early June for a short special session to finish critical bills that were nearly complete. We will monitor this closely and if a special session does occur, we will be looking for opportunities to continue to elevate funding for Redevelopment in 2023.
Additionally, it is worth noting that securing funding for the Redevelopment Account for 2023 in the conference committee report during a chaotic time speaks volumes about the reputation that EDAM has built as a well-respected leader in the economic development space. The Jobs Committee received a total target of $11 million of new spending for 2023, and $1.5 million of that was allocated for Redevelopment. We thank all the EDAM members for your outreach and work this Session, we truly appreciate it and look forward to building on these successes moving forward.