State and Local Government Finance and Policy discussed HF4025 this morning (Mar 26). (I’ve written about the bill before.) The goal is to coordinate efforts, especially as federal funding comes into the state to reduce duplication and waste. A big change today is moving the proposed office into Admin, instead of as a standalone entity. It was re- referred to Ways and Means.

Short description: HF 4025 (Koegel) Minnesota Advisory Council on Infrastructure established, office powers and duties specified, implementation provided, reports required, and money appropriated.

A5 Amendment – moves the proposed office into Admin, instead of as a standalone entity. (And was accepted.)

Pro Comments/Testifying

MN Infrastructure Alliance supports the bill.
MN does not do well with infrastructure coordination according to reports better communication and collaboration will help

Con Comments/Testifying

Questions:

What did we do with no Task Force?
It was patchwork. This will help with collaboration.

Is there an agency that could absorb this work?
That’s why we moved to Department of Admin and we’re waiting for the new budget estimate.

Is this State projects or local projects too?
It’s nonregulatory advisory office – it will help with all public-private partnerships as orgs choose, not mandatory.

After the bridge went down in Maryland, we need this. Are there contingency plans in engineering?
Yes.
We are seeing weather-related issues and that’s something we work on too.

What did the Task Force on this issue do?
The bill is a summary of the work we did. We listened to what folks needed.

I thought there was not consensus in the Task Force. What about that? And this costs a lot – how does movement to Admin reduce costs?
Admin will save on office space and some staff. I’m working through those assumptions.
In the Task Force, there was one dissenter but the report was approved.

Government grows when we provide more services.

It’s good to work smarter, not harder. Why did you choose Admin? Any examples of hos this has helped in Michigan?
We’ve learned about their internal work and it just seemed like a fit.
Admin can support the work of the Council

We can’t wish for small government and complain when things catastrophe happens. This Council will prevent disaster.

Will this funding come out of our jurisdiction?
No. We’re working on new budget after move to Admin. We think this will have good ROI.

We have a Task Force too, related to sustainability. Can we work together?
Yes

This is nonregulatory and it’s expensive. This is a lot of money for something with no teeth. In the Cities we have Met Council. Do we need this?
The saving in the cost will compel people to work with us.
We could make this regulatory if that’s a preference.

Re-referred to Ways and Means