On January 30, 2024, Associate Policy Director Dominic Butchko submitted a Letter of Information to the House Environment and Transportation Committee on HB 241- Housing and Community Development- Just Community Designation. This bill gives the Governor authority to designate areas as “Just Communities”, prioritizing these areas in state funding.
The biggest concern for counties regarding this bill is the proposed scope and the opening of the door for unintended consequences. Without additional context or guardrails, this language may be unintentionally used to inequitably redirect significant amounts of state investment, effectively choosing winners and losers.
The State has successfully developed a number of tools and requirements around environmental justice, which counties (and others) currently use. The scope of HB 241, though, seems unusually broad and may trigger unintended consequences, with effects on current programs that have a deeply conceived distribution through statutory formulas or otherwise.
HB 241’s cross-file, SB 308, was heard in the Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee. Dominic Butchko submitted a Letter of Information on this bill. SB 308 was heard in the opposite chamber, the House Environment and Transportation Committee, on March 19. MACo submitted a Letter of Information on this bill.
More on MACo’s Advocacy:
