AWC’s Board of Directors adopted the 2021 City Legislative Priorities at their October 2 meeting. The Board reviewed the recommendations of the Legislative Priorities Committee, which considered more than two dozen issues over the summer. Given the complexities of the upcoming session, it’s important to focus our city message on the most critical issues and to speak with one voice. We encourage you to communicate these priorities with your local legislators.

The five city priorities ask the Legislature to:

State-shared revenues – Maintain revenue sharing with cities. Cities support increased shared revenue distributions to cities (if the state sees increased shared revenues) and ask the state to look for other opportunities to expand revenue sharing.

Transportation revenue package – Adopt a new transportation revenue package that emphasizes maintenance/preservation funding and provides an equitable level of local funding as well as additional local revenue options for cities.

Fiscal flexibility – Provide cities greater flexibility to use funds from existing revenue sources to help cities manage the impacts of the current economic downturn. This will allow cities to direct scarce resources where they are most needed when responding to pressing community conditions.

Housing instability assistance – Work in a coalition to develop additional resources to address housing instability created by the economic impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic, including rent assistance and foreclosure/eviction prevention assistance.

Statewide policing reforms – Support local control over city law enforcement policy decisions to meet the needs of each community and appropriately contain costs. Cities understand our obligation to address racial equity in policing – both state requirements and local policies.

Cities support the following statewide reforms:

• Develop a statewide standard for use of force that preserves the right of local jurisdictions to enact more restrictive standards based on community input.
• Create a database to track officers who have been fired for misconduct.
• Expand grounds for decertification to include use of force violations.
• Require that officer misconduct investigations be completed, regardless of an officer’s resignation.
• Establish a duty for all law enforcement officers to immediately intervene and report misconduct or illegal activity by a fellow police officer.
• Require that all officers receive regular support for vicarious trauma and mental well-being, including peer support, mental health counseling, and appropriate mental health screenings. Officers involved in any fatal use of force must undergo a mental health screening prior to returning to duty.

The issues recommended as significant include:

• Property tax – Revise the property tax cap to tie it to inflation and population growth factors so that local elected officials can adjust the local property tax rate to better serve their communities.
• Broadband internet – Support policies and funding that provide greater access and equity for broadband services, including the potential expansion of authority to cities and other public entities.
• Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF) – Continue to pursue full funding for the PWTF and defend against the redirection of PWTF program funds.
• Tax Increment Financing (TIF) – Authorize property tax‐based tax increment financing, with a constitutional amendment if necessary.

Adopt your city’s 2021 legislative agenda

Last month we recommended that each city start working on its 2021 legislative agenda. Now that AWC has adopted our priorities for next year, you can include them in your city’s agenda.

Share it!
Once you have adopted your agenda, please share it with us. Send it to briannam@awcnet.org and we’ll post it to our website for other cities to see. Want to look at city legislative agendas from previous years? Check them out here.