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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Efforts to Prevent The Walz Administration’s California Car Mandates Advance in the Senate
Today was a step forward for the efforts of conservative lawmakers to prevent the Walz administration from imposing unpopular California car mandates on Minnesotans. Senate File 3496 passed out of the...
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Commissioner No-Shows Force Minneapolis Park Board to Cancel Meetings
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board regularly makes news for all the wrong reasons. Awhile back the board’s chaotic public meetings routinely made headlines for being disrupted and even sh...
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St. Cloud City Council Finally Ditches Speech Restrictions
For years the St. Cloud City Council has operated under rules of conduct that in effect amount to a gag rule on free speech. Duly elected city council members were prohibited from publicly criticizing...
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Taxpayer Costs Soar as Play Declines at Rochester City Golf Courses
The Rochester City Council might as well yell “Fore!” right now to warn local taxpayers about the bill coming at them for the escalating cost of subsidizing the city’s four municipal...
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Will St. Cloud Rescind Controversial Gag Rule on City Councilors?
It may finally be dawning on the St. Cloud City Council that the gag rule prohibiting individual members from publicly disagreeing with council actions approved by the majority violates the constituti...
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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...