Agenda Packets - 1990/06/18 - Laserfiche WebLink

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4_6147fL /5 MEMO TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL FROM: CLERK -ADMINISTRATOR DATE: MAY 31, 1990 SUBJECT: 1990 LEGISLATIVE SUMMARY The 1990 Session of the Minnesota Legislature was clearly a significant one in that the Legislature adopted several pieces of legislation having major impact on cities. These pieces of legislation included amendments to the Pay Equity and Truth In Taxation Laws as well as a tax bill which again modifies Local Government Aids, levy limits and the property taxation structure in the State. Before getting into exactly what happened during the last legislative session, I would like to review for you two bills that were not adopted in this Session but are likely to be reintroduced in 1991. The first is the Land Use Planning bill which has been around the Legislature for at least the last two sessions. An interim study committee will again be evaluating the need for modification to the current statues regulating land use planning in the State of Minnesota. The Association of Metropolitan Municipalities has been very active in this alga and will continue to oversee this legislation on behalf of its member cities. The second piece of legislation that was not acted upon in 1990 but likely to be reintroduced in 1991 is contractor licensing. This bill has also been around for at least two years and proposes that the state assume authority for licensing contractors on a State-wide basis, thus prohibiting individual cities from licensing contractors. The difficulty as I see it with this legislation is not the loss of revenues which we definitely would see should the State take over contractor licensing, but the fact that it would be more of an enforcement problem to make sure that all contractors working in the City are licensed than we currently experience under our local licensing ordinances. Although the State would be licensing these contractors and determining whether or not they meet their standards, any resident in Mounds View who has a problem with the contractor would still be expecting the City to assist them in mediating that situation. Our difficulty in those types of cases would be that we would no longer have the "hammer" of a license to hang over the contractor when the work that is being performed is clearly inadequate.