I have been trying to stay out of the fray, as I don't live in Minneapolis, but I am compelled to correct some disinformation.
Minneapolis does not pay for water or sewer in the suburbs. Minneapolis does pay the Met Council for sewer infrastructure improvements, but it is Minneapolis' sewer. The Met Council lists a number of sewer improvements in their capital improvement plan (page 54-55)(http://www.metrocouncil.org/environment/RatesBilling/CFP-2003.pdf) that are identified as Minneapolis Projects. The developing suburbs pay for water/sewer infrastructure through connection charges and assessments to property owners. If Mr. Bonham has specific knowledge of some suburb in which the Met Council is drawing funds from Minneapolis to fix someone else's sewer, I would love to have a link to that info so I can read more about it. Minneapolis did run water pipes to some of the adjoining suburbs many years ago, in order to sell them water from the Mississippi River. The city is still selling water to its neighbors, although New Hope, Golden Valley, and Crystal are considering ending the arrangement and drilling their own wells. In fact, there is a story in the Sun - http://www.mnsun.com/story.asp?city=Robbinsdale&story=107509 Those water pipes are probably the source of this urban legend. As for Local Government Aid - there were two major statewide programs used to transfer money to cities' general funds. For the 2002 budget year, HACA (Homestead and Agricultural Credit Aid) was discontinued to cities, so that the money could be directed instead to school districts, when the state decided to fund a greater portion of education costs. I am not sure what sort of a cut that meant for Minneapolis, but for some of the outlying metro area cities, it was a very significant cut - about 13% of Lakeville's general fund. http://www.taxes.state.mn.us/reform/pdf/lagsummary.pdf talks about the reasoning behind the change. Now the state is looking for other things to cut. In that respect, perhaps Minneapolis is a victim of its own success - having achieved a funding formula that almost entirely cuts out the suburbs, the suburbs have little reason to fight to preserve funding for the program. LGA is based primarily on how much a city spent in 1971. Not a very defensible purpose, but the program has served Minneapolis well over the years. Perhaps instead of throwing out the same arguments, it would be more productive for the long run to try to define a valid purpose for LGA, and adjust the formula so that it serves that purpose. If you try to look at it from Pat Awada's point of view, without demonizing her - you would see a program that gives Minneapolis 262 times as much money per resident as Eagan gets. Is Minneapolis' need really 262 times greater than Eagan's? Or is it maybe 3 times, or 10 times, or 100 times as much? It is interesting to read the perception that Minneapolis is subsidizing the suburbs with its base of jobs, or that having Minneapolis get less LGA (but still more than most everyone else) will create a "donut". Having a strong employment base is an asset. Having your residents all leave your city to go to their jobs is a drain on the local economy, because you have to provide them with schools, parks, services, without a commercial/industrial tax base to fund them. Last time I checked, that is why they created the Fiscal Disparities program. It seems to be popular to paint the suburbs as rich, but when you look closer, they have challenges too - just not ones that the state formulas reward. For example, imagine if the school enrollment in Minneapolis doubled in less than 10 years, and you had to build new schools for all those kids. Granted, the city budget doesn't pay for schools, but the taxpayer dollars that do pay for them come out of the same pockets. So what is the purpose of LGA? The state distributes specific aid for things like police, fire, streets, pensions, health and human services, and affordable housing - so is LGA really about providing basic services or something else? Whether you are worried about losing your piece of the pie or not - it is still valid to ask the question - what is the goal of LGA, and is it meeting that goal? Wendy Wulff Lakeville TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
