American Experiment on Governance
Governance Reports
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How the Met Council Misplans the Twin Cities
How the Met Council Misplans the Twin Cities by Randal O’Toole. From the Spring 2017, Issue 7 of Thinking Minnesota....
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The Twin Cities Met Council: A Comparative Assessment
The Twin Cities Met Council: A Comparative Assessment This report is designed to give lawmakers and citizens basic information about how the Met Council compares to other large, metro area bodies bot...
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Governance Articles
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St. Paul should stop using ‘fees’ to fund street maintenance
Minnesota’s Constitution imposes some important limitations on a city’s tax power. For several years, the city of St. Paul has imposed a right-of-way assessment on all property owners to fund road...
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Editorial counterpoint: Why fight over light rail when there’s bus rapid transit?
Why fight over light rail when there's bus rapid transit? BRT is cheaper than LRT. It could actually ease congestion and, if it fails, it's less down the drain....
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Minnesota needs a Brexit from the Met Council and regionalism: Dakota County makes a move
Allow me to juxtapose two news stories. The first is a local story, a small rebellion so obscure you might not have noticed it, which signals an important shift in regional partnerships. The other is ...
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Governance Posts
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Another child care center raided for Medicaid fraud
Fox 9 News and other media reported a raid on the Baraka Child Care Center in Minneapolis yesterday. State and federal agents participated, including the Secret Service, and while we do not have the u...
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Why do regional planners ignore the future of transportation?
The Weekly Standard recently ran a perceptive piece: The End of the Line: Light rail is a very expensive way to move very few commuters. Lately communities have been hitting the brakes on funding li...
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Carter Not Fazed by Turmoil in IT Department
Something apparently went wrong when new St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter hit the reset button on the city’s IT department upon taking office. It seems employees in the Office of Technology and Comm...
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Thank you Star Tribune for urging Gov. Dayton to ‘keep the greater good in mind’ and sign the ‘protest’ bill
The Star Tribune should be commended (again!) for their May 19 editorial urging Gov. Dayton to sign the bill enhancing penalties for protesters who block highways or airports. I say “again” beca...
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Gov. Mark Dayton: holding his breath until he turns blue at elementary school
It is outrageous that a governor would subject children to his political temper tantrum. Citizens must object to this injection of partisan politics in our K-12 taxpayer supported schools. Dayton ca...
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Governance Media
Howard Root: Five Heart-Stopping Years as a CEO on the Fed’s Hit-List (5.12.17, 50 min.) (50 min.)
Howard Root: Five Heart-Stopping Years as a CEO on the Fed’s Hit-List (5.12.17, 50 min.)...
The Twin Cities Met Council: A Comparative Assessment (Narrated PowerPoint) (09:33)
This presentation is designed to give lawmakers and citizens basic information about how the Met Council compares to other large, metro area bodies both in terms of governance structure and scope of a...