Regional economic vision: benefits and challenges
How can the Twin Cities develop a regional vision and strategy around the broader issues of economic development and global competitiveness – issues that extend beyond the jurisdiction of most existing regional institutions?
This is among the questions that emerged during the Regional Policy Conference held Sept. 23 in Minneapolis.
State Sen. Scott Dibble, Minneapolis (left) confers with Lee Sheehy, region and communities program director for the McKnight Foundation.
Keynote speaker Bruce Katz held up Stuttgart, Germany, as a model that has given a regional body “the authority to set up and implement economic strategies for the metropolis.”
Jay Cowles, a member of the Itasca Project, a business-led alliance concerned about the region’s economic competitiveness, said the state of Minnesota and its two core cities each have strong chambers of commerce, but they have not always worked in close coordination. “There really has been a vacuum for business leadership” at the regional level, he said.
Mary Bujold, president of Maxfield Research Inc., a real estate research firm, said she sees a lot of competition among metro area communities for economic development and suggested that the Twin Cities would benefit from economic development efforts serving “the greater good” of the region as a whole.
Jay Lindgren, a lawyer specializing in development and public finance, echoed that view, saying the region lacks the kind of fiscal tools available to every local unit of government in the seven-county area.
Jan Callison, a Hennepin County commissioner, said that despite the Twin Cities’ long history of regional cooperation, it still suffers from governmental fragmentation. She noted that there are 14 cities within her county commissioner district alone and said any effort at consolidation must overcome public suspicion that bigger government is “bloated” and less efficient.
Callison also said she believes the current state-local system for funding public services “is broken” and in need of major repair.
Jim Solem, a former regional administrator of the Met Council and former head of the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, suggested it also is time to expand the Council’s jurisdiction to reflect the true economic boundaries of the region. “Are we willing to be at least as bold as the Census Bureau (which defines the metro area as 13 counties)?”
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