Notes by Cirien Saadeh

Committee Chair (and Chief Author) Hodan Hassan (DFL – District 62B) introduces the House Economic Development Finance and Policy Omnibus Bill (House File 3028)

• “There’s a song about having more money that states “mo money, mo problems,” while we had ample money we also had great need and more of our communities are in dire need of a hand-up.”
• “We’ve been working hard for the past few months to build an economy for our state that we can all be proud of.”
• “In this committee we have talked a whole lot about equity and wealth-building for communities who have been left behind. With many years of disinvestment and underinvestment, many of our communities do not have the means to dig themselves out of the cycle of poverty. They don’t have the social safety net to build wealth and fully embrace the American Dream.” 
• Says there is a need to support small businesses and entrepreneurs 
• “It’s one thing to survive but we don’t want our businesses to survive, we want them to thrive.” 
• “The last three years have been challenging for our state and even more challenging for our small businesses with a pandemic that closed many of their doors amplifying inequities in our systems and put more stress on everyone as our future was uncertain, followed by the tragic murder of George Floyd and the civil unrest that destroyed the cultural corridors of our cities. I guess you can say that we have been thrown a lot.” 
• “While the murder of George Floyd was tragic and heartbreaking, it was also a turning point moment that forces us to deal with the disparities that have been persistent in facing us, racial disparities that face our racial communities because of systemic barriers that were put in place to just protect some group and create an exclusion process.” 
• Says a bill needed to be creative that was transformation and that deal with persistent racial disparity gaps 
• “I hope that it was no surprise that we were intentional, transformational, and serious about closing the wealth gap.”

HF3028 bill walkthrough

• Committee budget target, as resolved by ways & means, was $750 million ABOVE the base in FY 24 and 25 for total target funding of $948, 355,000.
• Committee has met the budget target 
• Reviews changes in the DE amendment to the bill:
  • Small Business Partnership: $10 million increase above base, with an approximately $6.5 million increase in the tails
  • Rural Policy and Development Center: a $500,000 increase in FY 24-25 one-time
  • $500 million appropriation to the Minnesota Forward Fund
  • $2.5 million increase for the Small Business Navigators program, with a $2 million increase in the tails 
  • $1 million appropriation Office of Child Care Community Partnerships, with an additional $1 million in FY 26/27. 
  • $5 million appropriation for the Expo 2027 support 
  • A $1 million appropriation small business development center support with an additional $1 million in the tails
  • $3 million for wealth-building grants with an additional $3 million in the tails
  • $5 million appropriation for the Neighborhood Development Center one-time
  • $5 million appropriation for the Center for Economic Inclusion one-time
  • $10 million for the targeted community capital grant program one-time
  • $20 million for the emerging developers fund one-time
  • $2 million for African Economic Development Solutions one-time
  • $1 million for the Enterprise Minnesota Small Business Growth Accelerator Program one-time
  • $3 million for the MNSIBIR Inc. one-time
  • $2 million for African Career, Educatio, and Resource Inc. one-time
  • $2 million for African Development Center one-time
  • $750,000 one-time for PFUND Foundation one-time
  • $250,000 for Quorum one-time
  • $6 million for initiative foundations with designated carve-outs 
  • $627,000 for the Community and Economic Development Associates
  • $3 million for the Latino Economic Development Center 
  • $250,000 for the Latino Chamber of Commerce Minnesota
  • $7.5 million for the Metropolitan Economic Development Association
  • $125 million+ for, in FY 24, for the empowering enterprise program with carve-outs listed including those for the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
    • $31 million each year for the City of Minneapolis
    • $11 million each for the City of Saint Paul
    • $5.4 million each year is for the Lake Street Council
    • $5.4 million each year is for the Midway Chamber of Commerce
    • $5.4 million each year for the Northside Economic Opportunity Network
    • $500,000 (split over two years) is for the Asian Economic Development Association
  • Other items also listed including those related to tourism

Bill and DE Amendment Reviewed

• Bill creates the Office of Child Care Community Partnerships to support child care businesses and increase child care accessibility – language from the Governor’s bill
• Establishes Small Business Navigator positions to help small small businesses navigate state programs and other sources of funding – language from the Governor’s bill
• Codifies the Small Business Partnership program which provides business development services to targeted businesses, namely those located in Greater Minnesota in the hightech field or those owned by certain groups – based on House File 504 from Rep. Hansen
• Makes changes to the Minnesota job creation fund to lower participation requirements particularly for businesses in Greater Minnesota and raise awards for creating higher-paid jobs – language from the Governor’s bill 
• Codify the Launch Minnesota Grant Program for start-ups and repeal an old version of a related law – language from the Governor’s bill
• Creates the Minnesota Forward Fund to fund private business development particularly for matching funds for federal incentives  – language from the Governor’s bill
• Increases the maximum grant award for the Targeted COmmunity Capital Grant Project project grants and changes other provisions – language from Chair Hassan 
• Creates a Community Wealth-Building Grant Program to make low-interest grants to community businesses – based on House File 318 from Chair Hassan 
• Establishes the Emerging Developer Fund Program to make grants and loans for developing projects by emerging developers – based on House File 1162 and House File 1289 from Chair Hassan 
• Creates the Empowering Enterprise Program “to give grants to community relief efforts for areas affected by civil unrest in 2020. This is new language from Chair Hassan.” 
• Establishes the Canadian Border Counties Economic Relief Program 
• Establishes a Capitol Area Community Vitality Task Force 
• Article 4 makes a “variety of changes related to the public facility authority and the clean water and drinking water revolving funds.”