Tuesday, February 4

• Senate Housing and Homeless Prevention Committee – Presentation of Governor’s Budget Recommendations from Minnesota Housing and presentations from advocacy groups on the state of housing and their priorities. You can find the materials from Minnesota Housing’s Presentation here and a handout about those priorities here. Senator Draheim asked about a “liquidity issue” that he has heard exists at Minnesota Housing. The Commissioner explained that with higher interest rates, the number of prepayments from mortgages the agency provided lending for has decreased, and that change has impacted some of the agency’s banking activities and has limited their discretionary activities funded with agency investments rather than state appropriations. Senator Housley asked the Commissioner to join the Committee to further discuss these liquidity challenges. Senator Port also shared her intention to discuss with the Commissioner how the Committee can help the Agency stand programs up more quickly and be more agile. Multiple advocacy groups also presented information about the state of housing and their housing priorities during the hearing.

  

• Capital Investment – Presentation of the Governor’s budget recommendations for state agencies including DEED Governor’s bonding bill overview. Deputy Commissioner McKinnon walked the Committee through the Governor’s asks, which included $2.7 million for BDPI and $1.8 million for TEDI. The Committee had a discussion about how difficult the decisions will be with less capacity available to the state to pass a robust bonding bill.  The current balance in the BDPI program is just over $5 million and the agency has about $5 million in projects in their pipeline. The TEDI program is functionally out of funding with a balance of $62,400. Senator Pappas asked if the Committee had “over funded” BDPI because the program has $5 million remaining, and she has requested a list of recent funding awards. Senator Jasinski spoke up in support of the BDPI program and noted that it’s important to have a balance in the program so there continues to be a pipeline of projects and so the program can meet demand.  

Wednesday, February 4

• Senate Committee on Jobs and Economic Development - A number of bills were heard in Committee including S.F. 0237 (Draheim), Greater Minnesota business development public infrastructure grant program expansion. Erik Simonson from the Coalition for Greater Minnesota Cities testified and raised concerns about expanding the program without adding any additional funding and stressed that current eligible uses are focused on the highest and best return on investments for the state. Senator Draheim stated in his testimony about his bill that he’s aware that in expanding the eligible uses of this program the legislature should also include additional funding. Chair Champion asked about the lack of definition for “commercial” and shared his concerns. Senate counsel also noted that in other areas of statute, the legislature has excluded certain commercial uses. S.F. 0582 (Jasinski), Greater Minnesota business development public infrastructure grant program appropriation, was also heard. Erik Simonson with the CGMC and GMNP Executive Director Darielle Dannen both testified in support of this bill, highlighting the importance of this program and its impacts on job creation and retention in Greater Minnesota. Senator Pratt offered supportive comments, and the bill was laid over for possible inclusion in an Omnibus bill.

• S.F. No. 868 (Wesenburg) - Adds "fixed wireless" to broadband speed definitions, changes mapping to specify all broadband tech
• S.F. No. 906 (Port) - Greater MN Housing Infrastructure Program $5M FY26
• S.F. No. 982 (Boldon) - Challenge program appropriated $22,925,000 in fiscal year 2026 and $12,925,000 in fiscal year 2027

Expect bill introductions in the House to pick up next week.

 

The House and Senate agreed to the following Legislative breaks (expect these to remain unchanged): 

• Eid Break - March 29 – March 31 with Committee activities resuming on April 1, 2025.  

• Easter/Passover break – April 11 at 12pm – April 21 at 12pm 

Expect bill deadlines to be announced soon, but there is no agreement yet.

Minnesota Expanding Opportunity Fund Program 

The Minnesota Expanding Opportunity Fund Program is a state-funded program providing low-interest loans to Minnesota nonprofit corporations, Tribal economic development entities, and community development financial institutions. Lenders can receive up to $600,000 at one time to provide loans to the small businesses they serve. Applicants must be CDFIs that are currently enrolled and active in one or more federally-funded state programs. The second and final round of awards are open to award the $3,450,000 balance of the $10,000,000 program.