Minneapolis City Council overrides veto on carbon tax
The Minneapolis City Council has overridden the mayor’s veto on a fee on carbon emissions. The council voted 9-2 on Thursday to override the veto.
The measure will charge businesses $452 per ton of carbon-dioxide equivalent in emissions from the “36 biggest emitters” in the city. The veto is worth a read in full, but here are a few highlights:
Council ignored legal advice publicly provided by the City Attorney that the PCAR fee for carbon dioxide “likely would constitute an unauthorized tax…” By refusing to listen to legal experts, you have all but ensured your efforts will be in vain…
And once again, a short-term political win was favored over actually getting the work done…
Disagreement is good – even essential – to delivering strong policy results. However, the dysfunction and flagrant disinformation you are Imposing on residents and City staff is undermining the City as an institution… We must stop pretending to be experts at the expense of the people in our city who depend not on a social media post declaring victory, but on actually achieving progress.
The Council has pushed back implementation dates. KSTP reports:
To allay some of the Frey administration’s concerns, the City Council pushed back the implementation date from January 31 to July 1 and put forth a resolution to establish funds within the Health Department to regulate a PCAR program for CO2 equivalents. Council members also directed the city to complete a study of carbon fees in case the rate needs to be updated before implementation.
Mayor Jacob Frey “supports the fees,” but believes that implementing them before determining the costs of the program will invite a lawsuit, as state law only allows the city to charge regulatory fees to recoup costs.
“They quickly changed what they voted on, pushed back the effective date of the fee, and acknowledged that the fee they had set would have to change,” Frey’s spokesperson said in a statement. “We all agree on attaching fees to pollution. Our only ask was to do it the right way and the Council is now scrambling to make that happen.”
Agreement is less unanimous than Mr. Frey might think. There’s plenty of evidence that carbon taxes “harm the competitiveness of local firms, causing the leakage of emissions and economic activity to other regions.” Perhaps the city shouldn’t be trying to drive away business and waste taxpayer dollars. with its carbon tax scheme