HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-7-20 Montana Housing Coalition Endorsement Memo
Commission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission
FROM: Mike Veselik, Economic Development Specialist
Brit Fontenot, Director of Economic Development
Anna Rosenberry, Assistant City Manager
Chuck Winn, Assistant City Manager
Jeff Mihelich, City Manager
Greg Sullivan, City Attorney
Anna Saverud, Assistant City Attorney
Melody Mileur, Communications Coordinator
SUBJECT: Endorsement of the Montana Housing Coalition’s Legislative Agenda
DATE: October 7, 2020
RECOMMENDATION: City Commission Endorses the Montana Housing Coalitions 2021
Legislative Agenda as a part of the City of Bozeman’s 2021 Legislative Priorities and Agenda.
SUGGESTED MOTION: Without objection, we administratively endorse the Montana
Housing Coalitions Coalition’s agenda and add it to the City of Bozeman’s 2021 Legislative
Priorities and Agenda as adopted in Resolution 5214.
STRATEGIC PLAN: 1.3 Public Agencies Collaboration - Foster successful collaboration with
other public agencies and build on these successes. f) Develop and support a legislative agenda.
BACKGROUND: The Montana Housing Coalition is made up of many traditional housing
sector plays such as non-profit and for-profit developers, social services providers, and housing
agencies. In addition, they also have members outside the housing community such as business
owners, hospitals, and other community members invested in having more affordable housing.
(Attachment 1)
For the upcoming legislative session, the coalition has retained a lobbyist. The coalition plans to
advance two key priorities. First, they plan to reintroduce a bill to allow for $15 million of the
coal trust fund money to be used to construct multifamily affordable rental units across the state.
(Attachment 2) Last session, the legislature passed a bill that allocated $15 million from the coal
trust fund and it was completely allocated by July 2020. The Montana Housing Coalition
believes this is a winning issue.
Their second priority is to implement a state workforce housing tax credit. (Attachment 3) The
state tax credit would be modeled after the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit. The credit
got a lot of good traction last session and the coalition thinks this session shows similar promise.
The argument for the credit would focus mainly on its economic development potential and the
fact that developers and investors cannot claim the credit until the building is occupied, usually a
few years after construction begins.
These goals are in line with the Commission’s adopted agenda. Therefore, it recommended that
the Commission’s add the Montana Housing Coalition’s legislative agenda to partner agendas
they endorse.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES: None
ALTERNATIVES: As proposed by the City Commission.
FISCAL EFFECTS: There are no fiscal impacts caused by prioritizing and adopting a 2021
Legislative Agenda. Costs will likely be incurred for lobbying efforts during the session.
Attachments: 1. MHC Membership
2. Issue Brief-Coal Trust Housing Loan Fund
3. Issue Brief-State Workforce Housing Tax Credit
Report compiled on: 7/10/2020