8.1. SR 04-03-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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League of Minnesota Cities Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities Metro Cities (Association of Metropolitan Municipalities) Minnesota Association of Small Cities Municipal Legislative Commission March 20, 2017 The Honorable Kurt Daudt, House Speaker The Honorable Paul Gazelka, Senate Majority Leader The Honorable Tom Bakk, Senate Minority Leader The Honorable Melissa Hortman, House Minority Leader Dear Legislative Leaders: A significant number of bills are advancing in the House and Senate that would undermine established local decision making authority and Minnesota's historically strong state and local partnership. As representatives of cities across the state, we are very concerned about this trend and the effects of bills that could significantly hinder local officials from effectively acting to serve their local communities, as they are expressly elected to do. Bills would directly and indirectly hinder local decision making across a broad range of policy and funding areas. Examples include legislation that would constrain local law enforcement authority, restrict a city's ability to set local ordinances, allow certain businesses unfettered access to public rights of way and eliminate a city's ability to manage them, restrict a city's ability to use certain fee structures, reduce local government aid (LGA) based on factors with no relation to the statutory LGA formula, and restrict a city's ability to consider a light rail project. Some bills would move aspects of local decision making authority to the Legislature. Other bills would require metro local officials to run the regional government, subjecting them to significant risks for conflicts for interest that could interfere with their ability to effectively represent the community in which they are elected. Others would usurp local representative democracy by requiring reverse referendums for local levies and funding mechanisms provided under state law. While city officials recognize that policies for local decision making authority can change over time, we are very concerned about the strong trend in this area, and the effects these bills would have in hampering local officials from performing their responsibilities and being able to appropriately act to address local needs. Such bills would seem to presume, however unintentionally, that there is a one -size -fits -all law that fits every community, or in other cases that the Legislature itself is in a better position to decide issues that are clearly local in nature. While `local control' can be a seemingly broad term, when applied it matters greatly, and if unduly restricted, can have severe consequence to citizens and businesses in communities across the state. Local officials, by state statute, are charged with protecting the health, safety and