Minnesota Redistricting 2022

[Trademark]

Northstar extension and NLX incoming

Northstar extension is doubtful. NLX is a lock. aBRT should get funding up through the H Line to allow them to hopefully speed up the construction of those lines. Hopefully a Midtown Greenway bridge, and eliminating statewide parking minimums.

Thats the best I'm hoping for in the next 2 years, and if we get all of those I'd be happy as far as the urbanist side of things (Still need more to be done in health care, education, weed legalization and others)

[BigIdeasGuy]

Remember the DFL can't lose a single vote in the Senate so assuming they are going to tackle everything on the progressive & urbanist very long wish list is going to be setting yourself for a massive disappointment.

Are there boxes they are going to check, absolutely. But it's not going everything the votes and political capital simply won't be there.

[Nick]

They’re going to put all $8.2 billion of that surplus into Southwest light rail

[NickP]

Whomp whomp lol

[Tom H.]

What do you guys think the chances are that, in lieu of directly funding transit projects, the state increases the allowed county transit sales tax from 0.5 cents to 1 cent? Might be a more pragmatic approach with the small expected majority, since it kicks the harder decisions down to the county level.

[phop]

I would also love to see a comprehensive package specifically addressing public worker shortages (mostly transit focused, but policing too, etc).

[Tiller]

Remember the DFL can't lose a single vote in the Senate so assuming they are going to tackle everything on the progressive & urbanist very long wish list is going to be setting yourself for a massive disappointment.

Are there boxes they are going to check, absolutely. But it's not going everything the votes and political capital simply won't be there.

A lot of DFLers have been waiting since they missed their chance for a transportation bill back in 2014/2015, so transportation funding could be one of the biggest things we get out of this from an Urbanist perspective.

I wouldn't hold my breath for zoning changes though, since there just hasn't been as much conversation about zoning in the legislature, and that could get messy real fast.

[amiller92]

With Minneapolis and St. Paul both making progress, there is arguably no real need for zoning change at the state level.

Tangential to discussions here, but priority number 1 to me is funding the unfunded school cross subsidy mandates.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

Legal weed is such a slam dunk at this point I wouldn't be surprised if that's the first to pass. Looking forward to Hornstein and Dibble as transportation chairs, expecting some good things to happen. Love the idea of allowing counties to expand their own tax base more.

Walz ran hard on fully funding education, we'll see how that actually shakes out. The funding gap since Pawlenty cuts is now around $4-$5 billion. Within that the special ed cross subsidy is $1 billion so that's got to be the floor.

[Silophant]

Gonna be bizarre to have things happen throughout the session, instead of crickets for months and then a single giant omnibus bill passing (or not) at 11:57 on Sunday night.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

A few good ideas floating around today that don't cost $

Allowing red light camera enforcement (per city's updated Vision Zero plan): https://twitter.com/WedgeLIVE/status/15 ... Cn04kpmp2w
Repealing legal segregation in charter schools: https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/15 ... Cn04kpmp2w

[MNdible]

Legalizing marijuana is a slam dunk in the sense that you should be able to get a good number of votes for it, but a real legalization bill (as opposed to the one they snuck through last session) will have to drill down into the details of regulation, taxation, etc. and so will likely take some significant committee work to hash out the details.

Also, I feel like the optics of passing this before more bread and butter things like education and transportation is a bad look.

[Anondson]

I’ll be disappointed if any legalization doesn’t offer anything for forgiveness to past convictions of small amounts.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

The DFL house passed an adult use cannabis bill in 2021 after spending the couple years before doing listening sessions etc. So I think a lot of the specifics are already worked out and ready to go. But you're right about optics. https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/cannabis/

[John21]

Hopefully we get some education funding. I understand that they also serve as community centers in some cases, but the suburban sport places are really nice. That being said, I can walk to Roosevelt from my house and can’t get into the track. Seems like we could create some better community here… Sorry for the local rant.

[alexschief]

Explicitly exempting comprehensive plans from MERA would be a nice thing to see.

It's important to emphasize that if the current court precedent striking down the Minneapolis 2040 plan is upheld, that's something that every community in the state would need to worry about. It shouldn't be just a culture war thing to own the libs in Minneapolis. Anyone could sue any plan anywhere on the theory that courts need to assume a full and instant build-out. It's totally insane, but politicians hopefully understand how planning works, even if judges don't.

BTW, feels like this policy talk should be cut out into a new thread. We're not talking about redistricting here.

[Trademark]

Explicitly exempting comprehensive plans from MERA would be a nice thing to see.

It's important to emphasize that if the current court precedent striking down the Minneapolis 2040 plan is upheld, that's something that every community in the state would need to worry about. It shouldn't be just a culture war thing to own the libs in Minneapolis. Anyone could sue any plan anywhere on the theory that courts need to assume a full and instant build-out. It's totally insane, but politicians hopefully understand how planning works, even if judges don't.

BTW, feels like this policy talk should be cut out into a new thread. We're not talking about redistricting here.

Agreed on both points. That is crucial for our ability to plan for the future.

Also, it would be nice to have a thread to talk more about local policy even when its not explicitly related to Urbanism.

[Nick]

Has there been any in depth explanation/reporting about what’s actually going on with that?