BIA Advocacy Update

Governor Burgum's State of the State Address

Jan. 23, 2024, Gov. Burgum gave his last state of the state address. In his address, he called for collaboration amongst the housing sector to focus on developing a comprehensive housing plan for the 2025 Legislature to consider. He stressed that as new people come to North Dakota, we need to have safe, affordable and quality housing.

Click here to read more.

U.S. House approves Tax Bill, NAHB Strongly Supports

The House approved the American Families and Workers Act of 2024, that would expand the federal child tax credit and enact a number of other business-related provisions.

NAHB strongly supports the roughly $80 billion tax package, which contains areas of interest to the housing and business community, including:

• Strengthen the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).
• Extend the 100% Bonus Depreciation.
• Expand Section 179 Expensing
• Increase the Threshold for Information Reporting on Forms 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC.  

For more details on each program, click here.

Minnesota Legislative Session begins Feb. 12, 2024 

The legislative session begins next Monday. You BIA plans to continue work with the Builders Association of Minnesota to monitor legislation that could impact you and your business. 

Horace

Land Use Ordinance

Horace city council met Feb. 5, and discussed the proposed ordinance, along with planning and zoning commission's recommendations from a meeting on Dec. 12. This was the first hearing of the ordinance by the city council. 

They approved planning and zoning's recommendations with a couple of changes. One included a change of the street/corner setbacks from a proposed 20ft. to 12ft. This would allow for more diverse housing to be built on the lots in-between. Another inclusion was adding a grandfather clause to clarify that developments currently in-process would fall under the existing land use ordinance. 

Two-year Property Tax Exemption for New Construction

The council also decided to address the extension of the abatement program on Oct. 21, 2024 instead of the original plan of addressing it at the first council meeting in July. The reasoning included less confusion for homeowners, administrative considerations and that there will be new council members still learning the ropes. They also decided to have the program go until Dec. 31, 2024. 

For more information on the items above, please review the agenda packet from the meeting here. 

Pg. 99 for the two-year property tax exemption memo. 

Pgs. 113-154 for the land use ordinance information.