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Peter McLaughlin's call for more unaccountable government and spending at the Met Council

5/27/2016

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On Thursday Hennepin County County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin sent a letter the Hennepin County delegation and others in support of new metro-area taxes to support light rail. In particular he is looking to fund Southwest LRT.

McLaughlin notes that a metro area sales tax to fund transit would give Minnesota the same approach as other regions in the country such as Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

Of course, he forgets to mention that all those regions  have a completely different, far more accountable and legitimate governance structure for the regional authority charged with using those tax funds.  That authority in Minnesota is the Met Council.

All other regional authorities in the country are run by a board composed of locally selected elected officials. In contrast, all board members of the Met Council hold patronage positions, and are appointed by Governor Dayton.

Legislators who are considering this plan for new taxes need to demand wholesale changes in the governance structure of the Met Council. At the very least, we need locally selected elected officials running the Council. Anything less is just more unaccountable government, and taxation without representation.  

Learn more here about how the Met Council is THE extreme outlier as the only regional authority that is 100% appointed, with a scope and spending far beyond any other such organization.
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Dayton goes nuclear, drops "Adam Bomb" option on SW Light Rail?

5/24/2016

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A reminder on why you can never sleep on the Met Council's efforts to undermine democracy. 

Met Council Chair Adam Duininck declared in July 2015 (PDF) that "The Metropolitan Council will not commit the 10% state share for the [Southwest Light Rail Transit] project without support from the Legislature." (See screenshot below.) In other words, he agrees the state needs to authorize paying for the state portion of the transit project.

Yet now Duininck seems to be threatening to renege on that commitment, stating "we are talking with our project partners, including the cities, CTIB and Hennepin County, on any possible ways to fill the remaining gap [to fund SWLRT]."

Which is it, Adam? Do you and the Governor intend to abide by basic principles of democracy in this country, or do you intend to try a bogus end-around on the process?

The July 2015 exchange points to one way the Met Council might try to do this. In essence, the Council would auction off the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax money it receives, bundle up that cash and use it to pay for its pet project, all without any approval from anyone. Specifically, Duininck and gang would  have the Met Council issue "Certificates of Participation" as a way to raise the cash that the Council can then use however it wants - in this case to pay for the state's part of  Southwest Light Rail. 

It seems almost certain that this type of bogus scheme is being conjured up by the Met Council and Governor Dayton as part of negotiations for a special session that would ram through funding for the controversial SWLRT.

Are we going to let the Met Council - 100% appointed by Governor Dayton - go nuclear and drop this Adam Bomb on the democratic process?

Let your legislators and Governor Dayton know that this will not stand, and that this is just one more indication as to why the Met Council needs fundamental reform on all levels. And what we definitely do NOT need is to give unelected, scheming officials another $280M a year in tax funds to use however they would like.

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Start Reading Now on WCCO Radio

5/23/2016

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I had a chance to talk with Mike Max on WCCO Radio today about Start Reading Now. It's a short 10 minute interview, but it hits on all the key aspects of how we address summer setback and closing the achievement gap.
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Edina Aviation Forum presentation

5/23/2016

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Tonight was the 3rd Annual Edina Aviation Impact Forum, pulled together by Connie Carrino on the MSP FairSkies team.  We had a great turnout from citizens, politicians and staff from the airport authority.  Our presentation from tonight is below, and you can watch the video here.

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An insane argument to remove oversight of the Met Council

5/20/2016

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Apparently our unelected masters at the Met Council think they need even LESS oversight from the legislature than they receive today.  Yes, that's the essence of the proposal to break the deadlock at the legislature over the $135M the Met Council wants for its absurdly overpriced SW Light Rail line (which by the way continues to be embroiled in legal controversy).  

From today's Star Tribune:

First, the DFL's proposal is the once again centered around a new tax, namely a new 1/ 2 cent sales tax that would push the standard sales tax in both Minneapolis and St Paul over 8%. 

Secondly, that tax would raise $280M a year, forever. That's right - in order to pay for the initial $135M to complete the SWLRT, we need to commit to $2.8 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years.

But the real kicker is that the Met Council's Chair,  Adam "Duininck said his pitch to skeptical lawmakers is that the $280 million per year would allow Metro Transit (i.e. the unelected, unaccountable Met Council) to untether itself from state government to the tune of $50 million per year it currently receives from the general fund."

That's right. His pitch is that further freeing the Met Council from pesky legislative meddling is a reason why the opposition should approve another tax increase.

We can only hope nobody on the "right" side of the aisle is insane enough to buy into that argument.



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Met Council reminded they work for us, not vice versa

5/17/2016

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A federal judge, John Tunheim, ruled today that our illustrious Met Council needs to hand over documents regarding its decision on the route for the $1.8 billion Southwest Light Rail line. Amazingly the Met Council had maintained that everyday citizens were not entitled to the information.

After all, the 17 member appointed Council never faces election, and only needs to appease the Governor, at whose pleasure they serve. Why would we lowly citizens expect them to answer to us as they spend $1 billion a year in addition to poorly planned capital investments?

Of course this comes in the middle of attempts by Governor Dayton to jam through a huge increase in transit spending, funded by more tax increases that would feed the budget and ever expanding scope of the unelected, unaccountable and illegitimate Met Council.

The Star Tribune has a nice summary (and the picture to the left) of the situation here.

Also,  my 10 minute report on some of the fundamental issues with the Met Council is here.
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Met Council counterpoint response

5/15/2016

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Several mayors responded in the Star Tribune to our perspective on the Met Council, and we clearly saw some of their comments as missing the mark. 

Our counterpoint to that reminds readers that the lack of accountability at the Met Council is but the start of its issues, and that we in fact ideally want the Council broken up into separate agencies.


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MSP aircraft noise, 2016 update

5/11/2016

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A quick update on our activities at the MSP FairSkies Coalition, and what we see happening in the next year or so.  I'll likely turn this into a short narrated presentation in the next couple of weeks as we finalize some numbers. 

Big takeaway: the number of people impacted by aircraft noise near MSP airport continues to rise. The 55 dB DNL contour population expanded by 9% in Minneapolis, and over 100% in St Louis Park. An open question is how much of that is due to NextGen arrivals going into effect, and how much is due to late night/early morning flights?

The noise exposure map (detail to  your left) is thanks to a data release from the Metropolitan Airports Commission and analysis by our friends at the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.

Quick 2-page PDF here.
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A radically different approach to poverty

5/2/2016

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Meanwhile in Finland, they appear to be hard at work trying to implement a rather radical change in how anti-poverty programs are administered, with a Universal Basic Income for all citizens. The monthly stipend of about $900 would be in lieu of all other social support services, and looks to be an attempt to make real a suggestion from Milton Friedman.  This City Journal article is a nice overview of the matter. A Finnish business school buddy of mine from my time at the Stockholm School of Economics notes that the left is now having some second thoughts about this, so we'll see what happens. Of course, a huge reason to do this is to get rid of the inefficient government administration of anti-poverty programs, and put some responsibility back on to the people. Perhaps not by coincidence, given the current refugee crisis in Europe, the stipend would only be available to citizens.
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    Kevin Terrell

    Sure, e-books have a place in the world. I just prefer real ones, in order to make the job a bit harder for any real life Winston Smith who might be out there.

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