Laserfiche WebLink
Housing & Economic Development <br />thepropertyÓsmarketvalue. <br />3-OBusinessIncentivesPolicy <br />Without a thorough study, the Legislature should not make any substantive changes to the <br />Business Subsidy Act, as defined in Minn. Stat. § 116J.993, but should look to technical changes <br />that would streamline both state and local processes and procedures. The Legislature should <br />distinguishbetweendevelopmentincentivesandredevelopmentactivities.Inaddition,inorderto <br />ensure cohesive and comprehensive regulations, the legislature should limit regulation of <br />businessincentives totheBusinessSubsidyAct. <br />Metro Cities supports additional legislation that includes tools to help enhance and <br />facilitate economic development and job creation. Metro Cities supports increased <br />flexibilityformeetingbusinesssubsidyagreementsduringastateofemergency. <br />3-PBroadbandTechnology <br />Where many traditional economic development tools have focused on managing the costs and <br />st <br />availability of traditional infrastructure -roads, rail,and utilities -the 21century economy is <br />dependenton reliable,costeffective,highbandwidthcommunicationscapabilities.Thisincludes <br />voice, video, data,and other services delivered over cable, telephone, fiber-optic, wireless,and <br />otherplatforms. <br />The state has increased its role in expanding broadband infrastructureacross the state by funding <br />broadband access for residents and businesses. The GovernorÓs Broadband Task Force regularly <br />recommends updates to state broadband speed goals and funding levels to expand statewide <br />broadband access. The Office of Broadband Development in the Department of Employment and <br />Economic Development (DEED) supports the role of broadband in economic development. The <br />Officecoordinatesbroadbandmappingandadministersstate broadbandgrantfunds. <br />Cities play a vital role in achieving significantly higher broadband speeds. Local units of <br />governmentarecontributingtoincreasingbroadbandcapacityandensuringinternetconnectivity, <br />reliability, and availability. However, attempts have been made in Minnesota and other states to <br />restrict orstopcitiesfromfacilitatingthe deployment ofbroadbandservicesorforming <br />partnershipswithprivate sectorcompaniestoprovide broadbandservicestounservedor <br />underserved residents or businesses. Restricting municipal authority is contrary to existing state <br />law on electric utility service, telecommunications, and economic development. Metro Cities <br />opposes the adoption of state policies that further restrict a cityÓs ability to finance, <br />constructoroperatebroadbandtelecommunicationsnetworks. <br />MetroCitiessupports: <br />State policies and support programs that substantially increase speed and capacityof <br />broadbandservicesstatewide, includingfacilitatingsolutionsatthelocallevel. The <br />stateshould offer incentives to private sector service providers to respond to local or <br />regionalneeds and to collaborate with cities and other public entities to deploy <br />broadbandinfrastructure capable of delivering sufficient bandwidth and capacity to <br />2022 Legislative Policies <br />39 <br /> <br />