Ms. Hart Kaier, Lighten up will ya!? I would expect a little more tact from someone with such an impressive title. Aren't you also responsible for maintaining positive relations with the general taxpayer? Sounds like you could provide a wealth of information about Mpls. lobbying efforts at the state capitol if only you would drop the scornful attitude towards civilians. After all, this may sound trite but indirectly your working for us. Well, not us, but Mpls taxpayers. Dennis Hill St. Paul Taxpayer St. Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: List Manager Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 4:41 PM To: Mpls list Subject: [Mpls] Re: Random Thoughts Forwarded on behalf of Andrea Hart Kajer, city Minneapolis
Intergovernmental Relations Director...
David Brauer's post, "Random NRP Thoughts," was forwarded to me. As
Assistant City Coordinator and the person who is in charge of our
Intergovernmental Relations Department, I feel I must dispel some of the
misinformation and inferences in Mr. Brauer's post.
"Random thoughts" says it all. Obviously, Mr. Brauer misunderstands or
misrepresents the lobbying process at the State Capitol. Let me set the
record straight.
We have been working on preserving NRP for months - ever since Governor
Ventura provided details of his tax reform plan. The demise of NRP is a
byproduct of that plan. Unfortunately, the plan as enacted by the
Republicans in the House also did damage to the city's Local Government Aid
(LGA) that accounts for 35% of what it takes to run the City's essential
services such as police and fire. We, therefore, had two objectives: save
LGA and save NRP.
What Mr. Brauer doesn't say is that thanks to Senator Pogemiller, LGA and
the city's essential services not only remained intact but our allocation
increased. This occurred on June 21 when the Senate and House agreed to a
framework deal pushed by the Governor. Unfortunately, the deal presented by
the Governor took $250 million from the tax bill. The challenge was then to
satisfy multiple outstanding requests for money, including for NRP, from a
pot made smaller because the Governor wanted to retain $250 million in
reserve funds to protect taxpayers in a slowing economy.
The last week of the special session featured intense behind the scene
negotiations on a variety of issues between Senator Pogemiller,
Representative Abrams and the Governor's office. Thanks to the City's
lobbying efforts, which included active involvement by the Mayor and other
City leadership, NRP became a significant part of these dealings. But no
deal was reached and many important provisions were lost. We weren't the
only disappointed party. The state's major multi-state corporations,
outstate counties looking for more payment in lieu of taxes because of
government owned lands - these and other interests lost when the
negotiations collapsed in the early morning hours last Thursday.
Nobody worked harder than the Mayor and City leadership and staff to affect
a solution for NRP. It was our job to make sure the Mayor and Council
President Cherryhomes visited those that could help us and they did that
most aggressively. We did not send the Mayor to Representative Abrams. His
hostility to NRP is well known and no amount of charm, pleading, or cajoling
by the Mayor, any other DFLer, Republican or Independent was going to change
his mind. The best anyone could hope for was to make NRP part of a
negotiated solution to the tax bill. Representative Abrams, to some extent,
was willing to consider this. But the negotiations were unsuccessful and
now the City must look to solutions that are outside the legislative
process.
NRP was not some afterthought for the City legislative team. Mr. Brauer
complains he heard about the problem only through the Center for
Neighborhoods. The Mayor and Council Members and the lobbying team were
working at the capitol. Under the Mayor's and Council President's direction,
on a daily basis, Keith Ford, of the MCDA, provided the Center for
Neighborhoods with the information they needed to rally citizens such as Mr.
Brauer to lobby the legislature and the Governor. We believed a strong
response from citizens and neighborhood groups was an important lobbying
strategy. We know that the response was strong and that emails from
neighborhood groups and citizens flooded the Governor's e-mail system.
I must also address the comparison of Senator Pogemiller to Senator Doug
Johnson. Anyone that knows the capitol would recognize that for most of the
time that Senator Johnson chaired the Senate Tax Committee, the House also
had a DFL majority. It was only in the last two years that the House has
changed parties, therefore making the job of the Senate Tax Chair infinitely
more difficult.
We did not come upon the NRP problem belatedly as Mr. Brauer suggests. The
Mayor, MCDA Executive Director Steve Cramer and others have used the
editorial pages and other means to warn policymakers about what "tax reform"
would do to tax increment financing in general and NRP in particular.
Frankly, Mr. Brauer's post insulted the hard work of the Mayor, city elected
leadership and staff. It also insulted the tireless work of Senator
Pogemiller, who single-handedly preserved and expanded LGA so the City can
continue to provide basic, essential City services. As for the NRP, the
City is on record strongly supporting this program. I expect it will
continue, though changed due to tax reform.
Andrea Hart Kajer
Assistant City Coordinator
Director, Intergovernmental Relations
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