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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The City of Corcoran planned to use building permit fees to finance its city hall renovation
Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking to a local city council about the obstacles to the construction of affordable housing which state and local governments erect in terms of in terms of taxes, fe...
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Crime, budget, population numbers suggest public safety needs more attention in St. Paul
The maintenance of law and order is one of the core functions of government. How do you think Saint Paul’s government is doing?...
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Check Out American Experiment’s New Scandal Tracker
The cover story in the current issue of Thinking Minnesota is titled “The Masquerade of Good Government.” Written by veteran investigative reporter Tom Steward, it documents the extraordin...
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Fraud and Mismanagement Should Be Red Flag for City Funding of Credit Union
The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board had a great opinion piece last week investigating allegations of fraud and mismanagement for a new credit union designed to promote economic opportunities ...
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Minneapolis council decides that spending money on events doesn’t generate offsetting economic benefits after all
If Mayor Frey has developed a new found sense of responsibility to his city's taxpayers it is to be welcomed. Sadly, I suspect that no such Damascene conversion to fiscal responsibility has taken plac...
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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...