While
Republican lawmakers have long complained about the alleged wastefulness of
light rail projects, Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, cited Portland, Oregon, as a
cautionary example of what will happen to the Twin Cities. She said light rail
in Portland has required expensive subsidies, leading to cuts in bus service,
poor road maintenance and traffic congestion far worse than in the Twin Cities.
(Staff photo: Bill Klotz)
Suburbs push
back against Met Council
The
Metropolitan Council is an undemocratic institution bent on imposing a
misguided, utopian vision on the suburbs which will lead to more traffic jams,
costlier housing and, possibly, the prospect of gang wars over prime
drug-dealing turf along new light rail hubs.
Those
were just a few of the more tart views expressed about the powerful regional
planning agency Thursday as 13 suburban lawmakers, mayors and other elected
officials vowed to push back against Thrive MSP 2040, the Met Council’s
long-term vision for transit and housing development in the seven-county metro
area.
“The
plan aims to socially engineer our future through dictates to elected
officials. And the surprising, curious and ridiculous net result is this: We
are going to see housing prices across the metro increase and traffic and
gridlock grow worse,” said Rep. Linda Runbeck, R-Circle Pines, during the press
conference at the State Office Building.
In
particular, Runbeck objected to the Met Council’s emphasis on increasing
housing density in targeted areas along transit lines. Such efforts will
restrict the land available for conventional single-family homes, she asserted,
driving up the costs.
“The
states and regions that have the least government involvement in land and
housing markets have the most affordable housing,” said Runbeck, who cited
Texas and Louisiana as examples. By contrast, she said, states with most
intensive regulations, such as California and Hawaii, have the most
unaffordable housing.
Although
the Met Council has been a subject of periodic criticism from both ends of the
political spectrum since its inception in 1967, Runbeck said the “top-down
decision making” in Thrive 2040 plan constitutes “a whole new era of
aggressiveness.”
Rep.
Jerry Hertaus, R-Greenfield, characterized the housing component of the plan as
an example of “massive overreach” that ignores market realities. He said Met
Council policies over the last several decades have encouraged sprawl outside
the Met Council’s jurisdiction, as developers looked for cheaper land in
communities such as Otsego and Delano.
“All
that did was create the need for more roads and schools and infrastructure,”
said Hertaus.
Cars over transit
While
Republican lawmakers have long complained about the alleged wastefulness of
light rail projects, Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, added some new twists to
those traditional critiques, arguing that more access to cars — not mass
transit — is the solution to the transportation woes of the poor.
“Studies
show that people without a high school diploma are 80 percent more likely to
have a job and earn more money if they have a car,” said Scott. “If the Met
Council wants to move people out of the poverty by giving them [better] access
to jobs, they should look to increase, not decrease, automobile ownership.”
Scott
cited Portland, Oregon, as a cautionary example of what will happen to the Twin
Cities if the Met Council doesn’t reconsider Thrive 2040. She said light rail
in Portland has required expensive subsidies, leading to cuts in bus service,
poor road maintenance and traffic congestion far worse than in the Twin Cities.
“In
Portland, crime is significantly higher within a quarter-mile radius of light
rail stations. In fact, rivaling gangs have warred over who would control the
drug traffic along the light rail corridors,” said Scott.
In
keeping with perennial complaints that the Met Council is not democratic
because its 17 members are not elected, Sen. Dave Osmek, R-Mound, said he would
introduce legislation next session to allow for more local say in the selection
of council members.
Under
Osmek’s proposal, a council member could be rejected if a majority of elected
officials in the cities within an individual Met Council member’s district
determine he or she isn’t the right fit.
“Why
not give the city a say in who should be their representative?” said Osmek.
“Who cannot be in control of giving local control to local authorities?”
While
that argument may hold broad appeal, the prospects for such legislation are murky
at best. In the main, that’s because sitting governors are generally reluctant
to yield the considerable influence that comes with appointing the members of a
body with annual budget of nearly $1 billion and its own taxing
authority.
Previous
efforts to reform the governance structure of the Met Council — or eliminate it
outright — have been rebuffed by past governors.
Asked
about former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of the last such initiative, Scott
responded, “I don’t have to be in lockstep with every Republican governor.”
Mayors unhappy
Some
of the harshest criticisms came not from lawmakers but from suburban mayors.
“[The
Met Council] doesn’t provide any useful benefit to us,” said Grant Mayor Tom
Carr. “Taxation without representation means as much now as it did 200 years
ago.”
Carr
called the Thrive 2040 plan “social engineering based on the utopian view of an
appointed council.”
Jim
Nash, the mayor of Waconia and current Republican candidate for House District
47A, said the Thrive 2040 plan is rooted in bad math — at least as far as his
city is concerned.
He
said the plan originally projected that the population of Waconia would grow by
just 47 people by 2040. With more than 100 new housing starts in Waconia over
the last several years, Nash said, he complained to a Met Council demographer
because those projections could have implications for the funding of future
road and sewer projects in the city.
“The
demographer said, ‘We can pencil whip the numbers for you,’” said Nash. He said
demographer subsequently revised the estimates for Waconia to reflect
anticipated growth.
“We
should be basing our decisions on actual facts,” said Nash. “I call on the
governor to bring in some reality and reign in the Met Council.”
Senate
Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, echoed that sentiment
“In
our view, the Met Council is out of control and it needs to be reformed,” said
Hann. “Or maybe we should just pencil whip them out of existence.”
A
recently released report from the Center for the American Experiment, the
conservative Minneapolis-based think tank, advanced many of the same criticisms
voiced by officials on Thursday. Among other things, the report —titled “Met
Council Power Grab” — characterized Thrive 2040 as an effort to “allocate
poverty all across the metro area” and a plan “to redistribute wealth from the
suburbs to the urban core.”
It was
authored by Katherine Kersten, the Star Tribune columnist, and Kim Crockett,
the center’s chief operating officer.
Council’s response
Susan
Haigh, the Met Council chair, was not immediately available for comment.
However Meredith Vadis, the council’s communication director, said the
complaints about the Met Council are nothing new and typically resurface during
campaign season.
“The
issue of Council governance has been debated since the council was formed and
this history has demonstrated that there are many approaches to this issue,
each having upsides and downsides,” she said. “We believe numerous metrics that
measure our work provide the best evidence that the council is and continues to
be accountable to residents, rate- and taxpayers around the metro.”
Vadis
also cited a 2011 report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor, which
found that the Twin Cities region’s transit system performed well on most
measures when compared with 11 other regional systems.
She
said the Thrive 2040 was a product of “extensive community engagement over a
period of nearly three years that included local officials at both the county
and city level as well as many other partners.”
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