Minnesota Association of Small Cities'
2025 State Legislative Priorities 

MN Small Cities continues to push for reliable, dedicated revenue for our transportation needs. Despite legislation passed in 2023 we have yet to see a year in which revenues have met what the legislature intended. In 2024, MAOSC addressed the ‘year 1’ delay in TAA funding, giving cities a total of $14 Million. With estimates of the Retail Delivery Fee falling below expectations we once again are asking the legislature to fulfill its promise and provide this much needed funding.

EMS

MN Small Cities supports a dedicated, ongoing funding source of $35-50 million to support Minnesota’s small publicly operated EMS systems. This money can be used to offset reimbursement deficits as well as for training and recruitment of our first responders, many of whom are volunteers.

WORKFORCE HOUSING

MN Small Cities supports the roll out and continued investment into targeted housing programs such as ‘Greater Minnesota Housing Infrastructure Grants’ and ‘Greater Minnesota Small Cities (Tier II Cities) Housing Aid Grant Program’. We are seeking an additional $20 million between these two programs. We will also continue to oppose or seek exemptions to the wide range of zoning mandates proposed in recent years.

CITY AUDITS

As the costs for audits continue to rise and the accessibility of auditors dwindles, MN Small Cities will push for policies that reduce the increasingly complex auditing requirements while maintaining transparency and accountability. We also support efforts to increase the number of CPAs through industry supported efforts.

LOCAL SALES TAXES

Last year a report was presented to the legislature from the Dept of Revenue on adjusting the current requirements for local sales taxes. Multiple proposals are being considered. We will be monitoring this closely. Our goal is to make it a simple process for cities to enact local taxes while providing some support for communities with limited retail opportunities. 

WATER/WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE

With no bonding bill passed in 2024 many of our small communities are facing costly but very necessary water infrastructure issues. We will push for a renewed bonding bill with significant investment in water infrastructure and work hard to ensure this does not include requirements to establish local maintenance funds, as proposed in the 2023 session. MN Small Cities supports passing a robust bonding bill with strong investment in public infrastructure. 

OTHER

In addition to this session's top priorties outlined above, MN Small Cities continues to track legislation on other key items of importance to small cities,including but not limited to the areas of: 

• Cannabis Regulations
• Broadband 
• Childcare
• Economic Development
• Public Safety
• Grants, Programs and Other Funding Opportunities

AUTONOMY & LOCAL CONTROL

MN Small Cities is determined to protect the ability of city leaders to make decisions in the best interest of their own communities. Supporting the authority of elected officials is one of the organization's paramount goals.

We will continue working to guard against the exclusion of smaller cities/greater MN from access to programs as well as "scope creep" of larger cities gaining access to programs originally created for small cities.