473.254 Local housing incentives account.
Subdivision 1. Participation. (a) By November 15 of each year, a municipality may elect to participate in the local housing incentive account program. If a municipality does not elect to participate for the year, it is not subject to this section. For purposes of this section, municipality means a municipality electing to participate in the local housing incentive account program, unless the context indicates otherwise.
(b) A municipality that elects to participate may receive grants or loans from the tax base revitalization account, livable communities demonstration account, or the local housing incentive account. A municipality that does not participate is not eligible to receive a grant under sections 116J.551 to 116J.557. The council, when making discretionary funding decisions, shall give consideration to a municipality's participation in the local housing incentives program.
Subd. 2. Affordable, life-cycle goals. The council shall negotiate with each municipality to establish affordable and life-cycle housing goals for that municipality that are consistent with and promote the policies of the metropolitan council as provided in the adopted metropolitan development guide. The council shall adopt, by resolution after a public hearing, the negotiated affordable and life-cycle housing goals for each municipality by January 15, 1996. By June 30, 1996, each municipality shall identify to the council the actions it plans to take to meet the established housing goals.
Subd. 3. Affordable, life-cycle opportunities amount. (1) By July 1, 1996, each county assessor shall certify each municipality's average residential homestead limited market value for the 1994 assessment year, including the value of the farm house, garage, and one acre only in the case of farm homesteads, multiplied by a factor of two, as the municipality's "market value base amount." For 1997 and thereafter, the "market value base amount" shall be equal to the product of (i) the market value base amount for the previous year multiplied by (ii) the annual average United States Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers, United States average, as determined by the United States Department of Labor, for the previous year divided by that annual average for the year before the previous year.
(2) By July 1, 1996, and each succeeding year the county assessor shall determine which homesteads have market values in excess of the municipality's market value base amount and the county auditor shall certify the aggregate net tax capacity corresponding to the amount by which those homesteads' market values exceed the municipality's market value base amount as the "net tax capacity excess amount" for the assessment year corresponding to the current taxes payable year. By July 1, 1996, the county auditor shall also certify the net tax capacity excess amount for taxes payable in 1995.
(3) By July 1, 1996, and each succeeding year, the county auditor shall also certify each municipality's local tax rate for the current taxes payable year.
(4) By July 1, 1996, and each succeeding year, the county auditor shall certify for each municipality the amount equal to four percent of the municipality's current year total residential homestead tax capacity multiplied by the local tax rate.
(5) By August 1, 1996, and each succeeding year, the metropolitan council shall notify each municipality of its "affordable and life-cycle housing opportunities amount" for the following calendar year equal to the lesser of the amount certified under clause (4) or the amount, if any, by which the net tax capacity excess amount for the current year exceeds the amount for taxes payable in 1995, multiplied by the municipality's local tax rate certified in clause (3).
Subd. 4. Affordable and life-cycle housing requirement. (a) A municipality that is determined by the council to have met its affordable and life-cycle housing goals in the previous calendar year may retain the amount calculated under subdivision 3 to maintain existing affordable and life-cycle housing.
(b) In 1998, and thereafter, a municipality that is determined by the council not to have met the affordable and life-cycle housing goals in the previous calendar year, as negotiated and agreed to with the council, and not to have spent 85 percent of its affordable and life-cycle housing opportunities amount to create affordable and life-cycle housing opportunities in the previous calendar year must do one of the following with the affordable and life-cycle housing opportunities amount for the previous year as determined under subdivision 3:
(1) distribute it to the local housing incentives account; or
(2) distribute it to the housing and redevelopment authority of the city or county in which the municipality is located to create affordable and life-cycle housing opportunities in the municipality.
A municipality may enter into agreements with adjacent municipalities to cooperatively provide affordable and life-cycle housing. The housing may be provided in any of the cooperating municipalities, but must meet the combined housing goals of each participating municipality.
Subd. 5. Sources of funds. (a) The council shall credit to the local housing incentives account any revenues derived from municipalities under subdivision 4, paragraph (b), clause (1).
(b) The council shall credit $1,000,000 of the proceeds of solid waste bonds issued by the council under Minnesota Statutes, section 473.831, before its repeal, to the local housing incentives account in the metropolitan livable communities fund. In 1998 and each year thereafter, the council shall credit $1,000,000 of the revenues generated by the levy authorized in section 473.249 to the local housing incentives account.
(c) In 1997, and each year thereafter, the council shall transfer $500,000 from the livable communities demonstration account to the local housing incentives account.
Subd. 6. Distribution of funds. The funds in the account must be distributed annually by the council to municipalities that:
(1) have not met their affordable and life-cycle housing goals as determined by the council; and
(2) are actively funding projects designed to help meet the goals.
The funds distributed by the council must be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the municipality receiving the funds. When distributing funds in the account, the council must give priority to those municipalities that (1) have contribution net tax capacities that exceed their distribution net tax capacities by more than $200 per household, (2) demonstrate the proposed project will link employment opportunities with affordable and life-cycle housing, and (3) provide matching funds from a source other than the required amount under subdivision 3. For the purposes of this subdivision, "municipality" means a statutory or home rule charter city or town in the metropolitan area.
Subd. 7. Report to council. Beginning January 15, 1998, and annually thereafter, each municipality must report to the council the following:
(1) the tax revenues defined in subdivision 3 that were levied in the prior year;
(2) the portion of the revenues that were spent on meeting the municipality's affordable and life-cycle housing goals; and
(3) information on how the expenditures directly support the municipality's efforts to meet its affordable and life-cycle housing goals.
The council shall verify each municipality's compliance with this subdivision.
Subd. 8. Later election to participate. If a municipality did not participate for one or more years and elects later to participate, the municipality must establish that it has spent or agrees to spend on affordable and life-cycle housing, or agrees to distribute to the local housing incentives account, an amount equivalent to what it would have spent on affordable and life-cycle housing had goals been established under this section for the period in which it was not participating. The council will determine which investments count toward the required cumulative investment amount by comparing the municipality to participating municipalities similar in terms of stage of development and demographics. If it determines it to be in the best interests of the region, the council may waive a reasonable portion of the cumulative investment amount.
Subd. 9. Report to legislature. By February 1 of each year, the council must report to the legislature the municipalities that have elected to participate and not to participate under subdivision 1. This report must be filed as provided in section 3.195.
Subd. 10. Metro report card. The metropolitan council shall present to the legislature and release to the public by November 15, 1996, and each year thereafter a comprehensive report card on affordable and life-cycle housing in each municipality in the metropolitan area. The report card must include information on government, nonprofit, and marketplace efforts.
HIST: 1995 c 255 art 1 s 5
Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes