Senate State & Local Government Committee advances omnibus bill to finance, debates NDAs for data centers and local-news advertising

The Minnesota Senate Committee on State and Local Government advanced Senate File 3045 as amended to the Finance Committee on April 10, 2025, voting 7–4 to recommend the bill for further consideration.

Committee members spent the markup approving a series of technical fixes and policy changes to the omnibus bill and debating several standalone amendments. Among the most substantive discussions were a provision to prohibit municipalities from negotiating data‑center deals under nondisclosure agreements, language directing state advertising dollars toward local news organizations, proposed changes to cultural and arts funding, and multiple votes on fee and appropriation adjustments.

A staff presenter described one of the early amendments as technical. “This amounts to a technical amendment to bring the language of the bill into conformity with the spreadsheet,” the staff member told the committee while summarizing the A19 amendment, which fixed line‑item and fund source language in agency and grant lines.

The committee extensively debated A18, an amendment that would prohibit municipalities from entering nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) as part of negotiations over data centers. The sponsor said the amendment responded to a local example in which a city negotiated an NDA with a private company and residents did not have a public opportunity to comment on the project. Committee members raised constitutional and jurisdictional questions; one member asked whether the Contracts Clause could be implicated.

Senate counsel advised the committee that judiciary has jurisdiction for contracting matters, and the counsel said the proposal could be routed there for further review. “Judiciary would have jurisdiction because they have jurisdiction over contracting,” the counsel told the committee. The A18 amendment was adopted on the floor of the…