April 9, 2024
Lawmakers have returned from their Easter break with a renewed focus on assembling omnibus budget bills that must pass out of committees by the third and final committee deadline of the session, April 19th. While early focus was centered around policy bills that had no fiscal impact, attention now shifts to bills that do spend state dollars. Governor Walz, Speaker Hortman, and Majority Leader Murphy announced joint budget targets shortly before the Easter recess. These targets give budget committee chairs the amount of funding they are allowed to allocate with their committee omnibus bills, but the decisions as to which bills get included to make up that funding are largely left to the committee chairs.
As we highlighted in our previous update, Economic Development did not receive much of an increased budget target, only $1 million in additional funding has been set aside for the committee to work with.
One bill that may be of interest to EDAM members that has recently received attention from House and Senate committees is Senate File 5157 and House File 4994, bills which would expand prevailing wage requirements to include all tax increment financing projects that are for either a multifamily housing development of 25 or more units, or any multifamily housing development receiving $100,000 or more in TIF assistance. This expansion of prevailing wage requirements has received hearings in the House Taxes Committee and the Senate Labor Committee where they have been laid over for possible inclusion in potential omnibus bills.
The EDAM Government Relations Committee has had discussions about how best to weigh in on these proposals. If you have questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to reach out our lobbyist Sam Richie at [email protected].