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Homeowners across Minnesota are facing a bump in their property taxes for the next year, after some cities and counties increased their tax levies. That’s the case in Minneapolis, where the city council approved a levy increase of about 7 percent.

But owners of land trust houses in Minneapolis are facing a bigger shock: property tax bill increases of more than 40 percent.

It’s the result of a change in state law that’ll bring taxes down for land trust homeowners in the rest of the state. But that law overrides city rules in Minneapolis that had given residents a better deal.

Low-income land trust homeowners say the tax increase will be a strain on their budgets.

Charlie Zieke bought a land trust house in south Minneapolis in 2018. They had been renting in the neighborhood for several years, but rent prices kept going up. They wanted the stability of owning a home. 

Zieke was in their 20s, working at a school — not making enough money to buy a house on the open market. But they qualified for help from the City of Lakes Community Land Trust. They said it’s the reason they stayed in Minneapolis.

“If I hadn’t bought a land trust house, I would have spent the last six years of my life moving from cheap apartment to cheap apartment, and then needing to leave again when the rent goes up,” Zieke said. 

The City of Lakes Community Land Trust serves Minneapolis; it’s one of 14 community land trusts around the state. The land trusts chip in money to help income-qualified applicants cover the cost of a house. In return, the trust retains ownership of the land. When homeowners sell, they get back their equity, plus 25 percent of the profit. The rest of the money stays with the trust. That keeps the home affordable; homeowners agree to sell to other income-qualified buyers.

The trust paid about a quarter of the cost of Zieke’s home, and gave them a grant for needed improvements on the house. Zieke’s mortgage payments were less than what they had been paying in rent.

“It’s life-changing to have an affordable house,” Zieke said.

But early in December, Zieke got a surprising notice in the mail: their property taxes are going up more than 40 percent.

Zieke is one of about 400 homeowners in the Minneapolis land trust program. They’re all seeing similar tax hikes this year.

“It’s a significant change, and it’s on a segment of folks who don’t have that wiggle room,” Zieke said. 

Jeff Washburne was the director of the City of Lakes Community Land Trust until 2023. He now works at a statewide coalition of land trusts. He said the Minneapolis tax hike is an unintended consequence of the new state law, which was intended to bring taxes down for land trust homes.

The new law taxes land trust homeowners across the state at just 75 percent of the rate they would otherwise pay.

"Every other community land trust homeowner who didn’t live in Minneapolis in 2025, in theory, is seeing probably a 25 percent reduction in their property taxes,” Washburne said. 

But Minneapolis already had its own system in place. In 2020, the city started taxing land trust homeowners at the amount they paid after getting help from the trust — instead of basing the tax on the full market value of the home. 

That was a big difference. Washburne said the trust often covers close to half the price of a house.

“So in many cases, homeowners saw almost a 50 percent reduction in their property taxes, which was a huge benefit to them,” Washburne said. He said Minneapolis was the only jurisdiction he knows of with that system.

But now, the state law says land trust homes have to be taxed according to the market price — and overrides the previous policy in Minneapolis. That means land trust owners in the city next year will still pay a lower tax rate than people who bought homes on the open market — but much more than they paid in the past few years under the city’s rules, and likely more than they had budgeted for.

“There’s some unintended consequences of, I think, some good policy that only hit Minneapolis,” Washburne said.

Andrea Reese is the executive director of the City of Lakes Community Land Trust. She also owns a land trust house. She learned taxes would be going up after the bill was passed by the Minnesota Legislature. Reese said it’s a frustrating change.

“The purpose of our program is to create affordability, and if these laws are coming behind us and doing the opposite… that is just kind of contradicted,” Reese said. 

The land trust sent a letter to its homeowners explaining the situation and some options for financial help. The land trust has an emergency fund homeowners can apply for, and there are outside resources like the state’s property tax refund program.

Charlie Zieke says they’ll be able to pay the increased tax bill — but it will have an impact. They said homeownership has been getting less affordable, even with the help from the land trust that got them into a house. Insurance is more expensive, as are other costs of living.

“I used to be able to save money living here,” Zieke said. “Between the property tax increase and my insurance for the house, I’m not able to save at the same amount, or really at all.” 

That’s a blow to land trust homeowners who aimed to build wealth or eventually buy a house at market rate — something the trust is designed to help with. 

Reese said she’s in touch with other homeowners and looking for solutions.

“I don’t know if there’s anything that we can do super immediately, in the short term, but we can help our community of homeowners be advocates and potentially get this changed either back or to something different,” Reese said.

She and Washburne both said they’ll go back to legislators in the upcoming session to ask for a change to the law.

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It continues to be a slow roll for Minnesota’s legal recreational marijuana business.

Ahead of the new year and the start of another legislative session, reporters Dana Ferguson, Hannah Yang and Melissa Olson joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer with updates on the budding enterprise.

Legal speedbumps and roadblocks in 2024

There have been some surprises as Minnesota developed a frame work for the new industry.

A lot of attention focused on a planned social equity applicant lottery in November to give select entrepreneurs a head start, but the issue ended up in court.

Some people denied access to the lottery sued over being excluded, arguing they met the parameters outlined in state law. In turn, state regulators said some applicants tried to game the system by applying on behalf of business groups that might not otherwise be eligible. Ultimately a Ramsey County judge halted the lottery.

Earlier this month, the Office of Cannabis Management announced it will hold two lotteries in 2025: one for social equity applicants and one for other applicants seeking permits for cannabis businesses.

In the meantime, the OCM is scaling up its team. Just recently it posted four high-level positions around communication, finance, government relations and planning — and the office is hoping for quick hires. There are no plans right now to switch from an interim director.

When might Minnesota see widespread dispensaries?

On the OCM’s current timeline, the first licenses won’t be approved until May or June. After that, it will take business owners anywhere from weeks to months to get up and running. In all likelihood, the first businesses to open will get off the ground in late summer or early fall of 2025. That’s two years after it became legal to possess, use and grow cannabis in the state.

It’s important to note that timeline is tentative. There could be other hiccups that crop up along the way, or possibly action from lawmakers to speed things up.

Do lawmakers plan to take action in January?

The lawmakers who wrote the legislation initially legalizing cannabis have been quiet about whether they want to streamline its industrialization in Minnesota. They were frustrated by the Ramsey County judge’s ruling halting the November lottery, saying the decision blocked the early license opportunity for applicants previously harmed by the legal system. Lawmakers reconvene on Jan. 14, and MPR News will be on the lookout for updates, as well as for a ruling in an appeal of the Ramsey County decision.

How are tribal nations navigating the evolving market and rules?

When cannabis was legalized in Minnesota, the law made room for compacts, or agreements, between the state and the 11 tribal nations in the state around medical cannabis and adult-use recreational cannabis.

The state and each individual tribal nation can choose to enter into an agreement and all parties stand to benefit from those compacts. In theory, that could lead to tribes providing wholesale supplies of cannabis to dispensaries statewide, or even setting up dispensaries outside reservations.

For example, the head of the cannabis company owned by the White Earth Nation recently confirmed the tribe purchased a building in Moorhead for a dispensary.

In an email to MPR News in mid-December a spokesperson for the Office of Cannabis Management reported the state is close to signing compacts with several tribal nations, though did not reveal which. Those compacts include how the state will tax tribal nations for the sale of cannabis products to a licensed wholesaler or dispensary. The OCM representative believes those compacts could be signed by the governor in the coming weeks.

How are individual communities preparing for the new business?

Each city has its own set of rules and policies they created based on what they think is best for their community. For example, Mankato is taking a more cautious approach to cannabis by limiting the number of high-potency retailers to just four; there’s no cap on smaller businesses setting up shop.

Mankato city officials tell MPR News they’re concerned about what enforcement of these rules will look like since each jurisdiction is different. They’re seeking guidance ahead of the retail market opening in Minnesota, and they want clarity about what happens if someone violates the law. Cities can revisit these rules in the future, but Mankato officials say they’re waiting to just see how things go in the first year of cannabis sales in the community before considering further action.

City officials in Le Sueur, meanwhile, say the cannabis industry aligns well with their existing agribusiness and think it will lead to positive economic development. The Minnesota Valley Cannabis Company purchased the former Green Giant building there to process cannabis. However, they can’t move forward with renovating the facility until the state hands out licenses, so the lottery delay put the company in limbo.

Could tribal grow facilities meet demand amid delays?

The OCM believes tribal nations will likely have the capacity to grow enough cannabis flower to help support the state’s commercial market. The tribes already own and operate several large grow facilities around the state. 

The newest grow facility is owned by Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures — the business entity owned by the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwe. This fall, the company completed the construction of a 50,000-square-foot grow facility on tribal land near Onamia.

There’s also a growing intertribal cannabis marketplace. For example, Waabigwan Mashkiki, a cannabis business owned by White Earth Nation, operates a large grow facility and dispensary. It also sells cannabis products to dispensaries owned by the Leech Lake reservation and the Prairie Island Indian Community.

What about Red Lake Nation’s mobile dispensary?

Red Lake Nation elected officials told MPR News their long-discussed mobile dispensary is up and operating. It’s a pop-up unit akin to a food truck. It’s been stationed in the communities on Red Lake Nation including Ponemah, Redby and near the casino on Hwy 89. Since Red Lake Nation has trust lands in Warroad and Thief River Falls, the mobile dispensary could stop there, too. Red Lake also hopes to build a brick-and-mortar dispensary in Thief River Falls.

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Green Bay Packer fans defeated Minnesota Vikings fans at the “Border Battle” tug-of-war contest on the historic Stillwater Lift Bridge on Sunday morning.

The cheeseheads won 3 out of 5 rounds.

Business owners in Stillwater and Hudson, Wis., organized the friendly competition ahead of the NFL game between the Vikings and Packers at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The contest provided a way to drive support for area businesses and fundraise for first responders on either side of the St. Croix River, with 60 percent going to organizations located in the winner’s state.

An organizer estimates they raised about $4,000.

Vikings fan Daniel Relyea lives in Stillwater but grew up in Wisconsin.

“You know, Wisconsin, they don't have as many services and they need the money a little more,” Relyea joked. “I think that might be part of the reason why they had such a fire in the belly.”

Organizers hope to make the tug-of-war contest an annual tradition for the second game of the season between the two NFC North rivals.

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The discount chain Big Lots, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, has reached a deal that will keep hundreds of its stores and distribution centers open.

Big Lots said Friday it will be sold to Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, a firm that specializes in distressed companies. Gordon Brothers will then transfer Big Lots' stores, distribution centers and other assets to other retailers.

Variety Wholesalers Inc., which owns more than 400 discount stores in the U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, plans to acquire between 200 and 400 Big Lots stores and operate them under the Big Lots brand. Variety Wholesalers will also acquire up to two distribution centers.

"This sale agreement and transfer present the strongest opportunity to preserve jobs, maximize value for the estate and ensure continuity of the Big Lots brand," Big Lots President and CEO Bruce Thorn said in a statement. "We are grateful to our associates nationwide for their grit and resilience throughout this process."

Columbus, Ohio-based Big Lots sells furniture, home decor and other items. When it filed for bankruptcy in September, it said inflation and high interest rates caused consumers to pull back on their purchases of home and seasonal products, two categories the chain depends on for a significant part of its revenue.

At the time, Big Lots planned to sell its assets and ongoing business operations to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management.

But on Dec. 20, Big Lots said the deal with Nexus didn't materialize. It then partnered with Gordon Brothers to conduct going-out-of-business sales at its 869 U.S. locations.

Copyright 2024, NPR

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Fans of the Minnesota Vikings will compete against their rival Green Bay Packers counterparts Sunday in an epic tug-of-war contest in Stillwater.

Dubbed the “Border Battle,” the event will start at 9 a.m., about six hours before the two NFL teams face off at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The location will be literally on the border: the Stillwater Lift Bridge, which spans the St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The contest was the idea of several restaurant owners in Stillwater, Minn. and Hudson, Wis. This is the first year for the event, but they hope to continue it next year.

“We have a really great spot for it, because of our proximity to both sides and because we’re a border town,” said Cory Buettner, who owns Leo’s Grill and Malt Shop in Stillwater. “And because of the lift bridge and its historic significance, it makes a cool backdrop.”

The group worked with the city and the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce to apply for permits to use the bridge, Buettner said.

Twenty-five fans from each side will be tugging on a massive rope that’s 300 feet long and weighs 166 pounds. The tensile strength is over 42,000 pounds, Buettner said.

“So we can tug, everybody can give it their best, and we’re good with the rope,” he said.

Buettner said several people have suggested the bridge should be raised during the event, but it will be in the “down” position.

“We’re safety first here,” he said. “No one is going to go into the St. Croix River because they lost a tug-of-war.”

Despite the historic rivalry between the two teams, Buettner said the contest is meant to be friendly.

“I keep on telling people this is we’re not (Philadelphia) Eagles fans here. We’re not going to get thrown in jail,” he said. “Verbal teasing is fine, but we want to just make sure that everybody has a good time.”

The event is limited to 150 people. Those who really want to participate should pre-register online to guarantee a spot, he said.

Proceeds from the event will benefit police, firefighters and emergency responders, with 60 percent going to organizations located in the winner’s state.

The Packers will be trying to break the Vikings' eight-game winning streak. Kickoff is at 3:25 p.m.

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