Star Tribune
New carbon tax and 4 other ideas from the Minneapolis City Council’s new majority
Higher fees for big carbon emitters, stricter policies for homeless encampment clearings and more checks on mayoral power could be coming if the Minneapolis City Council’s new majority gets its way this year.
While a contentious resolution over the Israel-Hamas war has grabbed attention, the council reshaped by the November 2023 election has begun to tackle more than symbolic statements on U.S. foreign policy.
The new majority, which can be broadly described as farther left of the previous council and more critical of Mayor Jacob Frey, has begun to roll out a series of policy ideas that its members hope can bring the city more in line with social, economic and environmental justice standards they believe the city’s population wants.
Many of the ideas aren’t new, but they previously stood little chance of being approved by the council and making it to Frey’s desk.
Now, the question for many of the initiatives isn’t whether the council will approve them, but how ambitious they will be — and whether they’ll garner enough support to override a Frey veto, should he attempt to block them.
Here are some of the new initiatives, many of which lack specifics, but are on track to be hashed out in the coming months:
Homeless response
The recent repeated evictions of several homeless camps named “Camp Nenookaasi” have underscored that the plight of the unsheltered — and those who live near them — remains front and center for the city.
For years, many in the council’s majority have criticized the city’s homeless response under Frey, and a trio of them are leading the charge to change city policy.
Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Council Members Jason Chavez and Aurin Chowdhury have announced plans to craft three ordinances:
- The “safe outdoor spaces ordinance” seeks to change the part of the city’s prohibition on camping “to develop regulations establishing authorized and regulated ‘safe outdoor spaces’ or individualized outdoor sheltering options for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.”
- An “encampment removal reporting ordinance” would require more information to be shared publicly about what happens to people who are evicted.
- A “humane encampment response ordinance” would clarify city policies with the aim of treating people experiencing homelessness with respect and dignity.
Carbon fees and climate
The city has a regimen —the Pollution Control Annual Registration Program — that levies fees on the largest potential polluters in Minneapolis. Nearly 5,300 entities, mostly commercial and industrial facilities, are subject to the program’s fees. The program covers a range of pollutants, from sewage discharge to gasoline storage to lead air emissions.
Council Member Robin Wonsley is leading a push to change the structure so that carbon emission fees are increased to account for the cost to society, ranging from public health to the rising cost of climate change. In other words: a type of carbon tax. It’s unclear how successful this effort will be; state statutes prescribe how such fees can be calculated.
This isn’t the only place the council will be focused when it comes to climate. This year will be a formative year for an ambitious city program to lower everyone’s dependency on fossil fuels, via a set of electricity and natural gas fees that will generate an estimated $10 million annually.
The “Climate Legacy Initiative” seeks to create an entire bureaucracy around new areas of city-funded infrastructure, from weatherizing private homes to building electric-vehicle charging stations. The nuts and bolts of this work will be done by yet-to-be-hired staff within Frey’s administration, but council members want to ensure they’re watching the work closely.
Checks on Frey
Several years after Minneapolis voters chose to establish a “strong mayor” form of government, the council’s new majority wants to ensure it still has muscles to flex when it comes to the balance of power. New Council President Elliott Payne sees this happening in a hardly headline-grabbing way: oversight through transparency, and transparency through increased reporting requirements of city agencies.
The most visible of these will likely occur via changes to policing dictated by state and federal court settlements. Databases will likely have to be created to, for example, see and track use of force by officers. Payne, a self-described “nerd,” would like to see this type of data transparency duplicated across a host of city operations.
Worker protections
Workplace regulations in the city are likely to be in the spotlight this year as Frey and the council look to establish a “Labor Standards Board” that, at its core, would seek to raise wages and benefits for people in traditionally lower-wage jobs in the city.
The effort has already spawned a pushback campaign from the hospitality industry, which has backed a group called “Save Local Restaurants” that has taken out TV and billboard ads.
Another priority related to worker protections: potential rideshare regulations mandating minimum pay and more rights for drivers of ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft. Previous efforts on this have failed to win Frey’s approval.
Rent control
Expect council supporters of rent control to mount another campaign this year, after being stymied in a contentious battle last year.
No one has floated a specific plan yet, but those on the council supportive of the idea — a slim majority — are keen to see if they can fashion a new plan factoring in lessons learned from St. Paul, where voters approved one of the strictest policy’s in the nation and Mayor Melvin Carter swiftly scaled it back.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
