Speed Gibson

Reform 2.0

I recently posted that we need to stay focused on reforming Minnesota's State government structure.  You know the reasons why, some of which clearly illustrated by the Governor's recent partial shutdown.  The pain he anticipated was not felt.  Instead, we saw a permit-happy bureaucracy.  We saw inconsistent rulings by the Court trying to decide just what are essential services beyond the obvious.  And when the Governor realized he couldn't keep his idled public union supporters in line, he quickly conceded, lest the voters learn even more how their government really works.

I got my wish the next day, when Minnesota Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers announced a new GOP initiative called Reform 2.0.  Quoting the linked Facebook page:

The state budget cannot grow faster than the economy that funds it. We will never reduce or control government spending unless we change how government operates.

Reform 2.0 builds on the foundation of the 2011 reforms signed into law. The campaign will result in a 2012 legislative agenda that furthers the Legislature’s ability to align spending to available revenue and reduce the burden on taxpayers.

They want our input.  Mine I'll be posting here the next couple of weeks, cataloged here.

• Thu 8/18: Prologue
• Fri 8/19: Consolidate the Counties
• Tue 8/23: Unincorporate the Corpses
• Tue 8/23: Size Up the Suburbs
• Wed 8/24: Clean Up the Pollution Control Agency
• Thu 8/25: Dead End the Department of Education
• Tue 8/30: Carve Up the Met Council
• Wed 8/31: Pass on MnSCU Failure
• Wed 8/31: And Your Little Gopher, Too!
• Sun 9/4: Break the Board of Education
• Tue 9/6: Epilog

Reform 2.0: Epilog

I think I've made the point in this Reform 2.0 series.  Which is: there is tremendous opportunity to reduce the size, scope, and number of governmental agencies here in Minnesota.  Anyone claiming we've cut to the bone, at any level, is poorly informed, never really had to deal with all these layers, or is a government employee.  Those who claim that we need tax increases for education while continuing to chuck billions into passenger rail are the ones most in need of an education.

I am now going to continue my own education, traveling along the Empire Builder route to Seattle.  Nowhere do the winds of freedom blow stronger than here in North Dakota this morning.

Reform 2.0: Break the Board of Education

You've probably seen makeover shows like Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Restauarant: Impossible.  They typically take a venerable restaurant that has lost its way, months or weeks away from bankruptcy, and give them a second chance.  That usually means: everything must go!  The decor, the menu, the sloppy / dirty kitchen, sometimes the chefs.

Aren't our school districts in roughly the same condition?  Fifty years ago it was seemingly wonderful, rigorous, disciplined, and a financial marvel by today's standards.  In came the unions and the experts.  Out went accountability.  Up went the cost.  Down went the results.  Old are aging buildings, not kept up, some unused for years.  New are what should be wholly unacceptable acheivement gaps.

And yet, our school boards and administrators continue to promise "A Future Without Limits" (Anoka-Hennepin) while "Uniting Communities of Excellence" (Osseo).  We get welcoming speeches every fall and gushing tributes every spring.  And a jeremiad about inadequate funding every Legislative session - and election.  It's not working, the whole system, at every level.  End it, don't mend it.

I must allow some reality, that vouchers or some other private sector enabling system won't happen.  But I can see a world without elected school boards.  The easy case would be outside the metropolitan area.  Let the county board hire the superintendent.  And when they don't perform, they get sacked promptly like a sheriff unable to cope with a rising crime rate or internal corruption.  It would much curtail the Kabuki dance that typifies far too many board meetings.

In the Twin Cities, it may not be the County that decides, there being too many districts and/or some conflicts of interest.  But I think an appointed joint powers board from the cities would still be an improvement over traditional school boards whose elections are heavily influenced by the unions.  Like their outstate county board equivalents, they have one job: hire and when necessary fire the superintendent.

There's more.  The school districts per se should be stripped of all responsibility for property management, the reasons obvious enough.  Let the cities who own and manage other city properties own the school properties and lease them to the districts.  If Plymouth residents want Pilgrim Lane reopened, make District 281 a lease offer they can't refuse.

I am obviously rambling a bit, but that's what we need, this sort of rambling - brainstorming - to get rid of the school board metaphor, an institution of the last century that we can do without in this century.  For if this doesn't work for you liberals out there, then privitization is the only thing left.

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.