League of Minnesota Cities Announces 2025 Key Legislative Priorities

January 15, 2025

Infrastructure, housing, and public safety needs remain critical issues for cities

Partisan division has been a theme of the weeks and months leading up to Minnesota’s 2025 Legislative Session. Despite the uncertainty that is to come this session, the League of Minnesota Cities will continue to advocate for the needs of all Minnesota cities and remain focused on the need for vital state-local partnerships.

The League’s Board of Directors adopted 14 legislative priorities for the 2025 session, which were determined during the League’s policy committee process and through other member interactions and communications since the conclusion of the 2024 session. While the League plans to allocate ample time and resources to all 14 priorities — plus any other pressing issues that may arise — it has identified bonding/infrastructure, housing, and public safety needs as its key priorities heading into the legislative session.

Providing Substantial Infrastructure Support

The League supports a substantial capital investment package that includes funding for municipal water and wastewater infrastructure, local roads and bridges, housing, the local road wetland replacement fund, flood mitigation, and dam repair and removal projects.

The legislature failed to bring a bonding bill up for a vote in either body in 2024. A last-minute effort to support a few infrastructure projects with a $71 million general fund appropriation package also failed.

“Our cities cannot grow—or even keep up with current-day infrastructure demands—without more support from the state,” said LMC President and Lakeville City Administrator Justin Miller. “We urge the legislature to pass a bonding bill this session to ensure all Minnesotans have access to clean water, safe roads, and other critical infrastructure.” 

Promoting State-Local Housing Partnerships

The League continues to advocate for policies that balance state goals with local needs, ensuring that cities have the flexibility and support to address their unique housing challenges.

In anticipation that legislators may reintroduce similar bills from previous years that aim to preempt city zoning and land use authority, the League will continue to testify at committee hearings and meet with lawmakers to inform the legislature of regional housing differences and promote state-local partnerships across Minnesota.

“Any housing framework developed by the legislature must support all levels of housing development and ensure affordability by providing necessary resources and policy guidance,” Miller said. “The state should encourage local innovation by supporting, rather than overriding, cities that have already made progress in housing initiatives and zoning reforms.”

Addressing Public Safety Needs

In 2024, the legislature allocated $24 million in rural emergency ambulance service aid and $6 million to fund sprint medic pilot programs in Grant, St. Louis and Ottertail counties. But cities’ need for more EMS support remains.

The League supports the work of the EMS Delivery and Sustainability Task Force and will engage in the work of the newly established Minnesota Office of EMS. The League will continue to support funding and policies that recognize different EMS models tailored to individual cities’ needs.

In addition, the League calls for ongoing state funding to support mental and physical injury prevention, treatment for public safety personnel, and reimbursement for employers. The League opposes expanding the definition of eligible work-related conditions for workers’ compensation purposes.

“We are committed to working with local first responders and their employers to find solutions that best support Minnesota’s public safety professionals,” said Anne Finn, the League’s intergovernmental relations director. “Our communities depend on their services, and we must prioritize first responders’ health, well-being, and the future of the profession while being fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.”

Representing All Minnesota Cities

The League’s key priorities do not reflect the broad scope of issues the organization anticipates addressing during the 2025 legislative session. Other priorities include employment relations, local government aid, local sales taxes, and transportation funding, among others. The League is a nonpartisan organization and will continue to work in good faith with all policymakers.

“We look forward to continuing to work with legislators on both sides of the aisle,” Finn said. “We will continue to put cities’ interests first and will remain focused on advancing public policy and funding provisions that benefit residents and businesses in cities statewide.”

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