This week in the Housing Finance and Policy committee, we debated a bill that would actually take away the right to buy property for certain groups. This bill, HF 685, prohibits corporate entities, developers, and contractors from converting single-family homes into rental units.

Unfortunately, this bill would catch family corporations, not-for-profits, and small LLCs up in the prohibition. This means that, for example, if a family of six wanted to buy a house and rent it out, they would be prohibited from doing so, whereas a family of five would not. A bill that dictates what can be done by limiting small businesses and organizations from acquiring property is a very unamerican thing to do.

This same bill was, like many other bills in many other committees this year, was moved out of the finance committee with jurisdiction over the budget, without even having a fiscal note to tell members what this bill would cost the state to implement. Moving a bill out of its finance committee of jurisdiction without even an inkling of how much it may cost state and local governments is nearly unheard of prior to this session. It is irresponsible legislating and could have huge implications for our state's budget.

In State Government Finance this week, we heard the bill that would legalize cannabis in Minnesota. This bill, like the one discussed above, also has no fiscal note even though this week's State Government Finance hearing is now the fifth finance committee it has passed through. The bill also tramples all of our local governments by preempting the power of local governments to decide which businesses can move in to their jurisdictions and where. Republicans offered numerous amendments attempting to remedy this, but every single one was shot down by Democrats. This trend of trampling over local control was highlighted in a MinnPost article this week:

Republicans, DFLers change hats in debate over how much control cities, counties have over recreational marijuana | MinnPost

If you have thoughts or concerns about these or any other issues coming before the legislature, please don't hesitate to reach out.