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Committee Considers Statutory Update to Explore Minnesota to Reflect Broader Marketing Role
Summary
House File 1152 would revise Minnesota Statutes to broaden Explore Minnesota's statutory mission to include business attraction, outdoor recreation and film promotion and clarify contracting authority for creative freelance work; bill was laid over for further consideration.
Representative Pete Johnson presented House File 1152 to the committee, a statutory update to Minnesota Statute 116U to reflect Explore Minnesota’s evolving mission. The bill consolidates and clarifies existing statutory language to explicitly include film production, outdoor recreation, business attraction and workforce attraction as promotion activities under Explore Minnesota’s marketing remit.
Lauren Bennett McGinty, executive director of Explore Minnesota, told the committee the bill is largely housekeeping: it aligns statute with practices the agency has been carrying out for several years. She said the agency’s work remains tourism-focused as a lens for broader promotion, and that the measure would clarify the agency’s ability to enter small-dollar, short-term contracts with freelance writers, photographers and other creative contractors to meet marketing timelines and needs without going through lengthy RFP processes for every small contract.
Members asked whether the change affects funding for tourism or creates new budgeting authority. McGinty said film promotion and other efforts have separate funding paths (film has its own budget) and that business and workforce attraction had received one-time funding in 2023 that ends at the close of the current biennium; those efforts are not part of Explore Minnesota’s base budget. She said the bill does not move or reduce current tourism funding.
Lawmakers also asked about staffing and the share of agency work focused on tourism versus business attraction; McGinty said Explore Minnesota had roughly 55 staff, with most staff focused on tourism-related work and about one full-time position dedicated to business/workforce functions funded by one‑time money. She described plans to hand off collateral developed with one‑time funds to other state agencies and to maintain the agency website and marketing channels.
Representative Johnson said the bill “ensures Explore Minnesota’s mission and statutory language reflect the agency’s expanded role” and the committee laid the bill over for further consideration.
