Speed Gibson

Reform 2.0: And Your Little Gopher, Too!

Last post I laid out the problems of MnSCU, which oversees all public higher education institutions in Minnesota except for the University of Minnesota system.  One problem is the clear overlap between MnScu and what I'll call "the U" here.  For the U runs a number of small campuses like Morris (UMM).  It's a good school, but the alleged benefits of being part of the U were clearly oversold.  We also found that credits don't transfer between campuses any easier than MnSCU, which is to say, generally not.  If you didn't know better, you'd think Morris is a MnSCU campus.

So why does the U need to extend to Morris, Crookston, Rochester, and various regional extension offices like the Hormel Institute in Austin?  I'd even question "Moo U" - the Twin Cities' St. Paul campus near the State Fairgrounds.  It would function best as a single campus, its current major site in Southeast Minneapolis including the West Bank.

There are even voices on the Left who agree that the U should focus on being the State's greatest center of higher education, the one with the highest standards and engaged in the most prominent research.  I would further argue that the U should be the sole graduate degree public institution.  One Law School should be enough.  One Medical School should be enough.  The Carlson School of Management should be enough.  And as with MnSCU, dump the "made up" soft degree programs, even for the jocks.

That all said, I am more interested in restoring the academics than fixing the financials.  But I'd at least freeze spending eliminate capital (bonding) for two years as a baseline for after that.

"Too" is the key to understanding and downsizing MnSCU.  "One" is the key to re-establishing the U, for if it's not the best or a MnSCU location can do it better, get rid of it. 

 

Reform 2.0: Pass on MnSCU Failure

As my colleague at Let Freedom Ring has been focusing on of late, we pay out millions to MnSCU - our Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system.  Quoting the MnSCU Web Site:

With its 31 institutions, including 24 two-year colleges and seven state universities, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is the largest single provider of higher education in the state of Minnesota.

The colleges and universities operate 54 campuses in 47 Minnesota communities and serve about 250,000 students in credit-based courses. Overall, the system produces about 33,500 graduates each year.

In addition to credit-based courses, the system offers customized training programs that serve about 153,200 employees from 6,000 Minnesota businesses each year.

The law creating the system was passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 1991 and went into effect July 1, 1995. The law merged the state's community colleges, technical colleges and state universities into one system.

The system is separate from the University of Minnesota.

MnSCU embodies a number of problems I'll call the Terrible Too's that need reform.

• It is overall much too large, a big part of the obvious oversupply of higher education in Minnesota.  Many, I'd say most of the campuses should be sold or closed.  Don't forget the many private institutions that face unfair subsidized competition from these public operations.
• The MnSCU Administration provides too little oversight, i.e. is of little value to its members.  Meanwhile, state-wide goals like inter-school credit transferability are going unmet.
• While separate from the University of Minnesota system, there is too much overlap between them.  They both need to focus on their respective core missions.  The notion of North Hennepin Community College offering four year degrees is unnecessary bordering on laughable.
• There are too many soft degree programs that are of no real value to students or their potential employers.  The "invest in education" metaphor clearly does not apply to "Eco-Tourism" or other self-actualizing studies.
• Academic rigor has suffered from too much dumbing down, perhaps because flunked out students don't pay tuition next semester?  The terror once known as Freshman English is gone.

Given financial problem number one - oversupply - I would not hesitate to cut MnSCU's funding in half.  I'd keep its superstructure for now, to decide what to keep.  And it would take a very convincing report from MnSCU to keep me from cutting it substantially more two years later, ultimately eliminating the MnSCU concept.

Don't forget, MnSCU is only 20 years old.  We ran decades before that without any such coordination.  Given how little synergy was produced, we can do without that coordination as before.

Reform 2.0: Carve Up the Met Council

In my travels there are few kind words said of the Metropolitan Council, even by Democrats.  We on the right think they meddle needlessly and by the way there's this no taxation without representation thing.  But there are critics on the left, too, who generally like the concept but think they should be much more involved and forceful, like on combating urban sprawl.  It's an insider's game where the connected command political power without having to actually run for office.

The premise is apparently that the metropolitan cities and counties can't be expected to work together without some superstructure guiding or goading them.  I see no evidence of this nor did the original proponents I dare say.  I think the charge of meddling is now valid as a number of cities would attest.

We can't dispose of it entirely as it runs the metro-wide sanitary sewer system.  But a simple joint powers arrangement will suffice, with members appointed by each county.  Now, other than Metro Transit, everything can go, fully repealed.  So what about public transit?

I'll differ with many in my party, but I think at least a nominal bus system is an expected, almost essential aspect of city life.  What we can do without are the experts, the ones who dream up wildly expensive rail projects for example.  They build fancy park and ride lots in the second tier surburbs and beyond while ignoring their core urban customers.  Perhaps the busiest transfer point in the Twin Cities is at 7th and Nicollet.  Is there a shelter?  Are there benches?  Are there "NexTrip" signs like on Marquette and 2nd Avenue for the suburban riders?  No, one, and no.  We get to stand in the cold and the rain, peering at a printed schedule lazy susan type display on a sign pole.

In so many ways, the Metropolitan Council deserves a flaming F for their performance on transit.  To be fair, the Met Council did not absorb the first public body, the Metropolitan Transit Commission until 1994.  But over these 40 years of public ownership, we have replaced that private system that turned a profit at 30 cents a ride into a $2.25 experience that actually costs more like $7 a ride.  They've also done a great job chasing the middle class away from public transit.  Car technology and creature comforts have made enormous strides that Metro Transit has all but ignored.  In fact, with Light Rail we've gone backwards in time.  About the only upgrade is air conditioning but even that it is unreliable, uneven and noisy.  Better technology is clearly available, like that used by some "opt-out" suburban lines, government bodies that should also be totally questioned.

Ultimately, transit shoud be returned to the private sector.  If there must be transit welfare, let it be expressly thus, where the welfare agency pays the full fare to the private operators.  Meanwhile, "on demand" and other now technically possible alternatives can be explored that truly might take people where and when the want to go, and comfortably.  Fixed rails and fixed schedules are fixed costs.  We need the vibrancy of the free market to truly match supply and demand.

A joint powers body can take over transit, perhaps including the "opt-outs" above, but with a clear sunset provision that ends it by, say, 2020.  With sewers and transit so covered, the Metropolitan Council can now be disbanded with hardly anyone noticing them not doing the work few knew they were even doing.

 

Reform 2.0: Dead End The Department of Education

In the grand scheme of things, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) is about as important to us as the Lieutenant Governor's office.  I understand it employs about 450 people, no doubt very expensive people.  We know they set standards, organize statewide testing and disburse the billions of dollars in the state budget.  They also pass judgment on various local district actions, like building and remodels.

As you may know, I've been following the exploits of the Robbinsdale School District for some years now.  And I can't remember any action or position or function that the District handled that MDE did or could have improved.  As such, we should abolish it.

But we have to have standards MDE would say, meaning local districts couldn't be trusted.  As recent events in Atlanta showed, there is no guarantee of enforcement regardless.  And every time the locals protest that the standards and testing are too hard, the bar is lowered.  Every time.  In other words, the State cannot be counted on to uphold any standards truly worth upholding.  We may as well leave it up to the local districts.

The current absurdly complex funding formulas should also be scrapped.  A one or two page form should be enough, filed like an Income Tax return by the districts to get their state money per student.  Audits are already being done by the State Auditor's office.  So again I say, let's eliminate this long obsolete agency and concept.  The taxpayers win and in fact the schools win, not having to waste time pleasing mere second guessers.

Reform 2.0: Clean Up the Pollution Control Agency

Now I'm really smoking some serious ... compost.  I propose closing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).  Every employee.  Every office.  Every expenditure.  Every regulation.

Instead, whatever permitting must continue now falls to the (new and improved) counties I first postulated.  They will still be bound by Federal EPA regulation of course, which makes the MPCA redundant.  But wait you say, every state is different and needs the fine tuning the state agencies provide.  I say I've done that one better.  Who better to get closer to the land and the people than a county agency?

I still envision a state level Department of Natural Resources (DNR), but stripped of any land use permitting.  This will be a county issue from now on.  Some counties may choose to be even more strict, but the duplication and inter-agency conflict and long delays and high costs must end.  And so does the reign of bureaucratic busybodies like Ellen Anderson.  The DNR can deal with large resources like the Mississippi River that flows through several counties.

The county boards would normally each hire their own "PCA" chief, at least partially funded by the state.  I frankly don't even care if the total tab is a little higher than before.  The breath of fresh air will be worth it.

 

Reform 2.0: Size Up The Suburbs

To date in my parallel universe I have cut the number of counties by about 70%.  I have unincorporated hundreds of small, dying cities, to be run or ended by their counties.  But what about the larger cities, most of which ring the Twin Cities metropolitan area?  Yes, it's time to cut their numbers as well, by consolidation just like the counties.

Some seem obvious, like Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, originally Brooklyn Township, to become just plain Brooklyn.  This would be about the size of Plymouth or Maple Grove, with a population of about 100,000.  Another obvious pairing, again repairing a historical split would be Crystal and New Hope, but I'd fold in Robbinsdale and Golden Valley to become "Queens" with about 80,000 residents.  These are very manageable sizes these days.

We could go still larger, merging Richfield and Bloomington, for example, where the geography is ideally suited for such a combination.  And then there are the many small parcels like St. Anthony, Falcon Heights, Hilltop, and Medicine Lake.  Overall, in the Twin Cities area I would think we could cut the number of suburbs in half.

Some would argue that smaller local governments are closer to the people, more responsive.  Having lived in one such community, I at least anecdotally disagree.  Small cliques can rule just as oppressively as large cliques, perhaps more so.  Being closer to the people can go too far.

Our suburban boundaries have changed many times in the past.  Anyone remember tiny Morningside, eventually annexed into Edina?  It's time for another round.

Reform 2.0: Unincorporate the Corpses

One reason I would consolidate the counties is to make large enough to take on larger roles.  Perhaps the largest is to support this next facet of my Reform 2.0 admittedly blue sky analysis.

About 500 of the 850 cities in Minnesota have fewer than 1,000 residents.  Over half of those have fewer than 300.  Almost all of them are dying, many are dead already, and none of them is really necessary anymore.  That's not to downplay or ignore their historical contributions and heritage.  But almost all of these cities were born in a high labor agricultural economy decades ago when perhaps 3 in 10 lived or worked on a farm.  Now it's more like 3 in 100.

The time has come to unincorporate them, turning whatever remaining duties to my new consolidated counties.  The county sheriff would handle policing, already a common practice.  The county could continue to oversee a volunteer fire department if present.  The county can run their water and sewer systems, though the existing users should pay for them as today.  And past some threshold, the city can be figuratively or even literally plowed under.

As with the counties, we don't have to do this all in one year, but not more than 20 years I would say.  That's about 25 a year, about 1 per my new larger county per year.

I realize this sounds pat, certainly too easy for us in the Twin Cities to flippantly impose on our greater Minnesota neighbors.  But our turn is coming in this seriess.  The overall goal remains the same, to limit the number of government units to what's truly necessary.  What we have was designed decades ago.  We need to realign once again.

 

Reform 2.0: Consolidate the Counties

Minnesota has 87 counties mapping 87,000 square miles.  California, nearly twice as large and with several times the population has only 58.

Our counties range in size from 156 (Ramsey) to 6,225 (St. Louis) square miles.  Hennepin has over 1.1 million residents while 20 other counties have less than one percent of that.  The medians are about 21,800 population and 670 square miles.

Having downloaded this information, I soon found myself playing "Sim County" to come up with 24 consolidated counties.  Only Hennepin and St. Louis remained as is, renamed Humphrey and Duluth since everyone else gets a new name.  The other 22 new counties comprise 2 to 6 existing counties.  Ramsey and Washington became Capitol County.  Dakota, Goodhue and Wabasha became Mendota County.  Dodge, Fillmore, Houston, Mower, Olmsted and Winona I made into my new Rochester County.

The new medians would now be about 110,000 population and 3,500 square miles, very manageable given modern communications and transportation. The least populous at about 16,000 would be my new Superior County (Lake and Cook combined).  The smallest would be my new Capitol County above, 547 square miles but with over 700,000 population.

The immediate goal and gain is the elimination of 63 units of government, clearly not at all needed.  The new governments will be somewhat larger in terms of elected positions and administration than today but they'll oversee much larger operations.  They'll continue to employ most of the "rank and file" staff that deliver the actual county services, but we should get some economies of scale.

Still, this won't by itself save Minnesota all that much money.  So why do it?  Don't forget, there will be costs to change over, new stationery if nothing else.  I have other reasons, which I'll explain starting with my next post in this series.  But back to conversion, how would we do that?

First, it's been done before.  Minnesota originally only had nine counties.  But given all I am doing is consolidating existing, well-defined parcels, we really only need a new charter.  In the enabling statute we would "deem" any reference to the old county names as applying to the new county.  Nancy Pelosi would be so proud.

It wouldn't have to be done all at once.  The Legislature could offer bonus money to early adopters, making the counties come together to present their new charters in St. Paul for consideration.  But there would also be a deadline, with no bonus money if you wait.

Of critical importance to me is that we not settle for a reduction to say, 65 counties.  The payback is too small and still leaves too many too-small counties that won't be able to effectively take on some new 21st century roles.

Reform 2.0: Prologue

(Previously posted as Taking Inventory: Prologue)

Governor Dayton's experiment in limited government is fading from memory, too quickly I fear.  We saw first-hand that we have some government we can do without, including some of what stayed open.  I fear by the time the Legislature reconvenes in 2012 business will again be as usual.  I want to proceed with perhaps the most important, indeed intriguing plank of the Tom Emmer campaign platform: ending the duplication of government.  And that means taking an inventory of the various elected bodies, joint powers organizations, and administrative departments.

We have about 850 cities in Minnesota.  About 500 of them are under 1,000 population.  Over half of those have fewer than 300.

We have 87 counties in Minnesota.  The smallest 62 of them contain only 20% of the state population.  The largest 9 counties account for 75% of the land area.  The much larger state of California has only 54 counties.

We have 519 school districts in Minnesota.  Not only do they vary widely in area and enrollment, many no longer make sense with the underlying growth and maturation.  Maryland has only 24 that serve about the same number of students as Minnesota.  That might help explain why our districts employ more non-teachers than teachers.

We clearly have many more MnSCU campuses than we need, plus an over-extended University of Minnesota.

Then we have watershed districts, utilities commissions, park boards, soil and water boards, and the myriad of regulatory agencies.  We have the Metropolitan Council hydra here in the Twin Cities and the IRRRB up north.  And then there's the tax code

By national norms, we even have too many Legislative districts.

Tally all of the above and it's no wonder you might need 7 overlapping permits to start a business or even add a room to your house.  So today begins a short series about the number of government entities in our lives and what I might do about it.

Lake Country Radio

The swap has been made.  "News Talk KTLK" has lost its high power FM frequency to KFAN (sports), leaving "us" with the old 1130 AM facility.  My reception was a little scratchy this morning until sunrise when they bump up from the directional 25,000 watt night signal to their full 50,000 watts in all directions.  Even so, it's still AM.  It sounds like I'm at a lake cabin listening to a local 5,000 watt station.

Oh, but they also are on FM 103.5, which my home receiver gets pretty well.  But not my Sony Walkman, where the signal cuts in and out with every step.  On the bus this morning I had to prop it by the window and even there I picked up all kinds of interference.  Both signals gave out as I entered my workplace office.  I gave up and switched to MPR.  Something else I noticed is that the AM signal is a good 10 seconds behind the FM signal.  This suggests KTLK is using an old technology ISDN line to the AM transmitter, further limiting audio quality.

So as of now, Davis and Emmer is now primarily in podcast status for me, particularly when Bill Bennett actually shows up.  FYI, Bennett has the worst substitute hosts on the dial, Rick Santorum on Fridays and his erudite producer Seth Liebsohn on other days off like today.  Both are hopelessly dull on air.