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Housing & Economic Development <br />Metro Cities supports state funding to allow cities and/or their development authorities to <br />assemble small properties so that business expansion sites will be ready for future <br />redevelopment. <br />3-K (3) Workforce Readiness <br />A trained workforce is important to a strong local, regional and state economy. Cities have an <br />interest in the availability of qualified workers and building a future workforce based on current <br />and future demographics, as part of their economic development efforts. Cities can work with the <br />public and private sectors to address workforce readiness to include issues such as addressing <br />racial disparities in achievement and employment gaps and the occupational gender gap. The <br />state has a role to prepare and train a qualified workforce through the secondary, vocational and <br />higher education systems and job training and retraining programs in the Department of <br />Employment and Economic Development, including youth employment programs. <br />Metro Cities supports: <br />• Increased funding for the Job Skills Partnership, youth employment programs and <br />other workforce training programs administered by the state that lead to jobs that provide <br />a living wage and benefits, and help address racial disparity gaps in employment; <br />• Innovative workforce programs and partnerships that foster workforce readiness <br />for a full range of jobs and careers, including skilled municipal jobs and current high <br />opportunity areas such as manufacturing and construction; <br />• Investments in programs that address the gender wage gap, including training for <br />women to enter nontraditional careers; <br />A payroll tax credit for job training programs that invest in employees; and <br />A city's authority to tie workforce requirements to local public finance assistance. <br />3-L Tax Increment Financing <br />Tax Increment Financing (TIF) continues to be the primary tool available for local communities <br />to assist economic development, redevelopment and housing. Over time, statutory changes have <br />made this critical tool increasingly difficult to use. At the same time, federal and state <br />development and redevelopment resources have been steadily shrinking. The cumulative impact <br />of TIF restrictions, shrinking federal and state redevelopment resources and highly restrictive <br />eminent domain laws constrain cities' abilities to address problem properties, which leads to an <br />accelerated level of decline of developed cities in the metropolitan area. Thus, the only source of <br />revenue available to accomplish the scope of redevelopment necessary is the value created by the <br />redevelopment itself, or the "increment." Without the use of the increment, development will <br />either not occur or is unlikely to be optimal. <br />2019 Legislative Policies <br />31 <br />