Why have we proposed this plan? Why is it worth the fight?

We’ve proposed this plan because it’s a good deal for Minneapolis taxpayers. And we’ve proposed it because without it, Minneapolis taxpayers could well end up with a raw deal.

That’s the difference between being at the table fighting for something — or walking away, not fighting and getting nothing, or worse.

3-for-1 plan for property-tax relief

I’ve said it over and over: property taxes in Minneapolis are too high. That’s why the City Council and I passed zero increase in the City’s property taxes for 2012.

We’ve worked hard to hold the line on property taxes in Minneapolis, despite drastic State cuts to our budget over many years: we’ve cut our own spending (now 9% lower than 10 years ago) and we fixed the broken closed-pension system that was the major driver of property-tax increases in recent years. In the process, we’ve paid down $183 million in debt and restored the City’s AAA credit rating.

But an ongoing drain on Minneapolis property taxes has been Target Center. Despite the fact that Target Center is a facility of statewide importance, only Minneapolis property-tax payers have been on the hook to pay off Target Center’s debt, to the tune of $5 million a year.

That’s just wrong. But despite the fact that the City Council and I have lobbied for years to get this burden off Minneapolis taxpayers’ backs, the State has not acted — and without a change, Minneapolis taxpayers alone will keep paying Target Center’s debt until 2025.

Now, for the first time — and only because Council President Johnson and I have been at the table fighting for a solution to the Vikings stadium — we have a realistic plan to move the burden of Target Center debt off the backs of Minneapolis property taxpayers and share it with all of the 18,000,000 people who visit and spend money in Minneapolis every year. And we can do it without raising any new taxes on anyone.

By keeping in Minneapolis existing, State-authorized sales and user taxes that are already collected here and currently dedicated to the Minneapolis Convention Center, we will not only lower property taxes on Minneapolis homeowners and business owners: we will continue to keep the Convention Center competitive, renovate the Target Center, and help find a solution for a new home for the Vikings. That solution includes a $1-billion new investment in our city that will create thousands of good jobs in the construction, service and hospitality industries.

What happens if we’re not at the table fighting for Minneapolis?

Some say that Minneapolis should just walk away from the table and not be part of this discussion. But this point of view turns a blind eye to reality — that the Legislature controls Minneapolis’ taxes and Minneapolis’ fate.

The existing taxes that Council President Johnson and I want to use for property-tax relief, for Target Center and the Convention Center, as well as for a new stadium, are ones that the Legislature has the power simply to take from Minneapolis at will.

If we were not at the table fighting to solve these long-standing stadium issues, the Legislature could — and in all likelihood, would — simply apply our taxes entirely to a new Vikings stadium, leaving Minneapolis homeowners out in the cold and still paying for Target Center debt. This would also leave the Convention Center and Target Center financially unsustainable, damage our strong hospitality economy and create even more of a burden for Minneapolis taxpayers.

That’s why we’re at the table, fighting for Minneapolis: because there, we can strike the best deal for Minneapolis taxpayers. If we weren’t there, who would fight for Minneapolis?

Our only choice: being part of the solution

When we face a problem in Minneapolis, we don’t walk away from it — we roll up our sleeves, listen to each other and try to solve it together. That’s the Minneapolis way, and that’s the way we’re working toward a solution to the long-standing property tax/stadium/jobs issue. But being part of the solution is Minneapolis’ only choice.

As we stay at the table and keep fighting for our city, I encourage you keep listening, ask questions and look closely at our plan to lower property taxes, build a stronger economy and keep Minneapolis taxes benefitting Minneapolis.

But before we get to that, let’s start with some indisputable facts: after inheriting an economic catastrophe, President Obama has delivered 22 straight months of private-sector job growth. Mayors like me across the country have benefited from his leadership in putting cops on the street, teachers in the classroom and unemployed workers back on the job — including in the auto industry, which made one million more cars last year because of the President’s bold leadership. He has also delivered critical investments in small business, including upgrades in homegrown energy, which have created hundreds of thousands of new jobs that didn’t even exist before. He’s made it less expensive to go to college, made it possible for millions who never had it to get on healthcare, and made it possible for millions more to stay on healthcare and not go bankrupt.

In short, the President’s leadership has delivered for America’s middle class.

The built-to-last economy that President Obama laid out tonight will keep leveling the playing field for the middle class. The President’s vision for America is one in which people who work hard, do their fair share and play by the rules will no longer be swimming upstream, but will actually get ahead.

That’s just common sense.

For years now, we have been firmly committed to making the Minneapolis Police department look like the communities that it works hard to keep safe, and our efforts are paying off: now more than 19% of Minneapolis police officers are people of color. While that still doesn’t represent the percentage of people of color in our city, which is more than 40%, it’s a higher proportion of police officers of color than we’ve ever had in our history. This is good progress that we can be proud of.

It’s also progress that one of the newly-rehired officers is a woman. Our force is now 16% women — and while that’s still not good enough, we also have more women officers today than we have ever had in our history.

We’ve made good progress on public safety in Minneapolis: violent crime has fallen by double-digit percentages for each of the last six years, and in 2011, violent crime fell to a 28-year low. While we have serious concerns — above all, that it’s far too easy to get and use a gun — and while even one crime is too many, our work in partnering with community to make everyone safer is paying off. Thanks goes to Minneapolis police officers, led by Chief Tim Dolan, and to the many unsung residents who work hard every day to make their communities safer.

Please join me in welcoming officers Bowen Barnard, Kong Moua, Abubakar Muridi, Christopher Reiter, Tou Thao, Lincoln Vincent, Jeffery Webb and Yolanda Wilks as they join the ranks of the men and women who work with our communities to make Minneapolis a safe place to call home.

Yesterday, it was my turn to watch Hashim on stage — at the White House.  He and I were invited to attend the day-long kick-off of the Obama Administration’s new Summer Jobs Plus initiative, for which STEP-UP serves as a model. Hashim spoke on a panel of young people who have benefited from meaningful summer employment and skills training, and this extraordinary, 23-year-old man told his extraordinary story:

Born in a war zone in Somalia, Hashim lived in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya before coming to Minneapolis 10 years ago, speaking no English. After finishing Sanford Middle School, he enrolled at Edison,  got that first STEP-UP job, then another one in the Minneapolis Public Works Department before finishing at the top of his class. He went to graduate from St. Olaf College. Today he works as an administrator at Wellstone International School in Roosevelt High. (Check out this great MinnPost story about Hashim and STEP-UP.)

Hashim was the rock star of President Obama’s summit on summer jobs — impressive, when you consider that Jon Bon Jovi, a member of the White House Council on Community Solutions, was in the audience … along with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, other presidential advisors and leaders of some of the country’s top businesses and nonprofits. Secretary Solis tweeted, “Hashim Yonis, a #summerjobs participant from Minneapolis, just shared an amazing story of perseverance and the power of opportunity.”

And when Hashim was done telling his story, President Obama hugged him.

Hashim is one of a kind — but he’s not alone.  He’s one of 14,000 young people who have held a STEP-UP summer job since we started STEP-UP with our nonprofit partner AchieveMpls. Many of these 14,000 young people have also taken advantage of the two other pieces of the Minneapolis Promise: planning their futures at college and career centers in every Minneapolis public high school, and financial help for college at the University of Minnesota and MCTC.

One of the best things about STEP-UP is that it’s there for young people who haven’t always gotten the opportunities they deserve: more than 50% of STEP-UP interns come from immigrant families, 86% are youth of color and 93% come from families living in poverty.

It’s no coincidence that since STEP-UP began, graduation rates in Minneapolis Public Schools have climbed from 53% to 78%.

The success of STEP-UP has only been possible because leaders of 211 employers in the private, public and nonprofit sectors have funded STEP-UP jobs, with help from the state and federal governments. I cannot thank them enough — and I want to extend special thanks to U.S. Bank Chairman and CEO Richard Davis, a strong business champion for our youth, who co-chairs STEP-UP with me.

The jobs these employers have provided are huge gifts from this community to these kids. In 2011 alone, these jobs put $3 million in payroll into low-income families. 

But make no mistake: these new young leaders are also a huge gift to our community.  Hashim, for example, speaks seven languages, and many STEP-UP interns speak at least two. Think of it this way: no other city in the country is training a workforce that is as globally savvy. These young people will make the Minneapolis of tomorrow a global economic powerhouse. 

Hiring promising young people from disadvantaged backgrounds for high-quality summer jobs and putting them on the road to success is the right thing to do. But it’s more than the right thing to do: it puts money into our economy today and it prepares our economy for the future.

Here’s where you can help: by hiring a STEP-UP intern where you work. Our community has done much to grow STEP-UP but we need to do more, because we have a waiting list of 2,000 deserving young people who are ready to work hard and give back. And if your workplace already has a STEP-UP intern, you already know how good they are — so you can help by hiring another.

If you or your employer is willing to help, contact Tammy Dickinson at the City of Minneapolis or Jane Austin at AchieveMpls.

Since that day seven years ago when I met Hashim at Edison, I have been promoting STEP-UP and the Minneapolis Promise at 9th-grade assemblies at every Minneapolis high school, every year.

This year at Roosevelt, I was introduced to the 9th graders by Hashim, now an administrator at their school. He told them that he once sat where they are and if he could make it, they could too.   

From my vantage point on that stage, I looked out at all those young faces from so many backgrounds, and I saw a very bright future for Minneapolis.

I first learned of Bertrand’s pioneering work through my wife, Megan O”Hara, who cochaired Homegrown Minneapolis. Megan and I are very excited about this new appointment and stand ready to help.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 4, 2012 

Minneapolis Public Schools names new director of nutrition services

Saturday morning I was at the graduation for parents in the Northside Achievement Zone’s (NAZ)FamilyAcademy

Shortly after getting her “diploma” while Pomp and Circumstance was being played,  north Minneapolis parent Lucretia Gibbs came to the microphone to tell what this meant to her.  She talked about the struggles in her life as she tries to raise a young family.  As she told about how the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) has surrounded her with support, she began to cry and couldn’t go on.  Two young boys lept from their chairs in the audience and ran to the podium to hug her.

Those of us in the audience smiled to see her young sons comfort their mother.  Except they weren’t her sons.  They weren’t her relatives at all and in fact, they didn’t know her.   

At that moment when two very young strangers embraced a parent who needed support we saw exactly what the Northside Achievement Zone is all about.  The Zone, which we call “NAZ”, is about having every single parent and every single child surrounded with support.  When any one of us sees a parent in need of support, we step up to help….even if we are a stranger barely old enough to go to school.

Those values are what has given so many of us hope about the promise of NAZ,  and it’s why the Obama Administration today awarded NAZ a $28 million Promise Neighborhood grant so they can reach hundreds more parents.    This is a monumental grant that can help transform the neighborhoods in north Minneapolis and the families that live there

Minneapolis received this astonishing grant in large part because of the groundbreaking work led by Sondra Sameuls, NAZ Executive Director.  She and the many, many people who have spent several years forming this partnership are winning the future, one child and one parent at a time.

We also have to remember that one of the reasons we got this grant is that we have one of the largest achievement gaps of any city in the country.  This grant is the wind in our sails to attack this problem but it should also be a challenge to see this state of emergency as just that.   Until every child is thriving we can’t move forward; every bit of energy in our community has to be brought together right now.

Along with this fantastic news today that is much more happening here. 

• Friday Minnesota received a federal Race to the Top grant to focus on early childhood development in areas of the state with the highest achievement gaps, including northMinneapolisand parts of St. Paul.
• Mayor Coleman and I have joined our school superintendents, the Presidents of the University of Minneapolis and the Community College Network, leaders of foundations and many others to implement a “strive” partnership to bring all the collective energy of all these partners to attack the achievement gap.
• The Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board is bringing all our partners together —city, parks, schools, teachers, parents, children—to sign a “compact” that will hold us all accountable for specific steps we will take in the next year to help our kids.
• The Minneapolis Promise, which includes our STEP-UP Summer Job Program, will continue to expand efforts to get our young people on career tracks that lead to college.
• We have also had a coalition of foundations who continue their long term commitment to investing in north Minneapolis, including General Mills, McKnight, United Way, Minneapolis, Cargill, Carlson Family, Northway and Northwest Area, and many many others.

Much more is happening and much more needs to happen.  This is a crisis and we have to treat it as one.    But I am more confident than ever that we will win the battle for the future of our kids.  

Sometimes things are tough in north Minneapolis but the people are resilient.  Together we have faced down the economic collapse, the foreclosure crisis, an epidemic of youth violence, a tornado, and much more.  Problems remain, certainly, but we are winning the battle on all fronts.

All eyes now turn to north Minneapolis again, from all over the country.  Once again they will see what we are made of, and we know that this next generation will be successful because we proved we are all in this together.

Congratulations Sondra Samuels and the Northside Acheivement Zone.

Congratulations to many hundreds of people who have been part of helping the northside.

Now let’s get back to work!

R.T.

I want to add a final word about my friends Sondra and Don Samuels.   I met them about 9 years ago in the midst of a horrible few evenings when it seemed north Minneapolis was coming apart.  As community activists they stood up and challenged everyone to put more of ourselves on the line to make the northside a better place to live.

They talked about what needed to be done, but they also dug in and made it happen.  Don got elected to the city council and started the Peace Foundation.  Sondra took over the Peace Foundation and started the Northside Achievement Zone.   While they were doing all that they were everywhere in the community, including holding a vigil every time a person died in north Minneapolis, an amazing action that has put a human face on what too many people wanted to ignore.

When my wife Megan and I are asked about who we see a heroes we often say Don and Sondra.  

We believe deeply in their work and today we know that the President and others inWashingtonbelieve as well.

The newly-adopted 2012 City budget makes a major new capital investment in street improvements and invests in the coordinated One Minneapolis initiative to start eliminating racial disparities in jobs and wealth. It also maintains investments in public safety that have brought down violent crime citywide to historic lows, and eliminates no positions in the Fire Department.

This budget reflects many years of sustained hard work to pay down debt, cut spending, end a broken pensions system and restore the City’s financial health.

• Since 2002, we have paid down $183 million in debt and restored the City’s AAA credit rating.
• We are spending 9 percent less than 10 years ago and have 12 percent fewer full-time positions than 10 years ago.
• We will spend basically no more money in 2012 than we are in 2011.
• Earlier this year — after seven years of trying — we negotiated a merger of two closed City pension funds with the State’s public-employee retirement system that averted a $20 million tax increase that would have been forced on taxpayers in 2012.

With the passage of the budget, we’re also making a major new capital investment in street improvements. Starting next year, we will invest $150 million — 60 percent more than we had previously planned — in making our streets better over the next five years. It starts next year with investing $9 million more in street improvements in 2012 than previously planned, then ramps up in 2013 with $23 million more in improvements.  

This investment also means that we’ll be taking a lot of union workers in the building trades off the bench and putting them to work.

But a decade ago, when the City was debt-ridden and had lost one of its AAA bond ratings, we simply couldn’t have borrowed the money to do it. Today, however, because we’ve paid down so much debt, we can borrow at low rates to pay down our infrastructure debt. And make no mistake about it: a pothole in a street is just another kind of debt.

I’m pleased that we’re also investing in the coordinated One Minneapolis initiative to start eliminating long-standing disparities in jobs and wealth in communities of color, particularly in the African American community. We will start by training and placing people in good jobs in the green-manufacturing economy through the RENEW initiative, with help from federal economic-stimulus dollars. It’s long past time to end these shameful disparities.

This budget didn’t come easy. Even with the strong foundation of fiscal health that we have laid over the past decade, we had to work hard to bring it in with no tax increase for next year because of yet another cut by the Legislature in Local Government Aid (for a total of $405 million in the past decade), and because of continued declines in commercial and residential property values, among other factors.

This budget doesn’t come without pain, either. We made cuts to nearly every City department and service. Altogether, these cuts will mean about 100 fewer positions at the City in 2012. Some of them were already vacant, but many of them weren’t. As a result, a lot of hard-working public servants will be without jobs next year.

The residents, public servants and taxpayers of Minneapolis have been incredible partners as we have tried to balance many different but equally important needs — holding taxes and spending down, paying off debt, making streets smoother and safer, making the economy stronger and creating opportunity for our youth. I’m pleased that our years of hard work are paying off next year in a budget that will meet many of our needs without one more dollar in property taxes.

(All that said, it’s frustrating that many taxpayers will still see increases next year even though the City isn’t raising any more money from property taxes. Much of the reason is that the State Legislature eliminated a property-tax credit called the Market Value Homestead Credit. The City of Minneapolis Truth in Taxation website explains this in more detail.)

I was grateful that we were able to partner with committee members to make some positive changes to the budget, in part because of some good financial news since I first proposed the budget a few months ago. Because of careful financial management in the Police Department, and because we will receive some more federal dollars than we had conservatively counted on, we are able to restore funding for several important initiatives, including Crime Prevention Specialists in the Police Department who work on the ground with residents of our neighborhoods to increase everyone’s safety, and the nationally-recognized Domestic Abuse Partnership in the City Attorney’s office, which has partnered with nonprofits and service providers to significantly increase the conviction rate in domestic-violence cases.

The committee also took action to ensure the continued success of our Youth Violence Prevention initiative, which has dramatically lowered youth violence, and move forward the One Minneapolis partnership that I proposed to eliminate the employment gaps in our city between whites and people of color, especially African Americans.

I thank the Ways and Means/Budget Committee for making these important changes, which I was pleased to support.

In recent weeks, I’ve continued to host neighborhood budget forums, at which I have been joined recently by Council Members Elizabeth Glidden, John Quincy and Meg Tuthill. At these forums, neighbors have told us several things:

• They’re pleased that we are not raising property taxes next year but feel that property taxes are still too high — and I strongly agree.
• Many are worried that they are still seeing their property taxes go up, primarily because of the Legislature’s elimination this year of the Market Value Homestead Credit.
• They’re glad that crime is way down and want it to go even lower.
• They’re concerned about the condition of our streets and relieved to hear that we’re planning another wave of major new investment to improve our infrastructure.
• Above all, they’re still worried about the state of the economy and want all levels of government to focus on creating jobs and rebuilding prosperity that benefits everyone, not just a few.

Every one of these needs and concerns is critically important. It can be tough to balance them all, but the budget that I proposed attempts to do that — with no tax increase, a significant five-year investment in our infrastructure, ongoing strong support for public safety and a focus on creating jobs and growing our economy.

I’m very grateful for the active partnership with the City Council in moving these priorities forward. As we move toward final budget adoption next Wednesday, December 14, please contact your Council Member and me to share your ideas and concerns.

The great thing about local government is that it’s where the rubber meets the road, where we work to meet people’s basic concerns about jobs, homes, safety, streets and quality of life. Unlike other levels of government, we can’t pass problems down onto anyone else — and at the City of Minneapolis, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yesterday, I attended the first graduation ceremony in Minneapolis of the e200 Emerging Entrepreneurs initiative of the Small Business Administration. It’s a great example of the City and federal governments working together to support entrepreneurship and connect smart, emerging business leaders with the tools they need to succeed and put people to work.

The Obama administration began the e200 Emerging Entrepreneurs initiative a couple years ago, and Minneapolis was selected to join earlier this year. The initiative provides promising small businesses with intensive consulting services in order to help them define a clear strategy for future growth.

Of the 19 small businesses that have gone through this intensive education — which is offered entirely free of charge — 17 are based in Minneapolis. At the City, we helped the SBA identify and select participants, and we found the space downtown — donated by Thrivent — where the small-business owners have been trained.

There are some exciting success stories among these varied entrepreneurs:

• MAG Mechanical, a Native American-owned, unionized HVAC-installation business, has grown its revenues by a factor of 30 in the past three years. They are currently subcontractors on the new Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters on West Broadway, and City staff is helping them find space to expand.
• Flair Fountains is winning high-profile contracts for custom fountain design and installation. A recent example: a 9/11 memorial fountain in New Jersey that incorporates beams from the Twin Towers.
• Maud Borup Chocolates, currently located in St. Anthony, is looking to consolidate and expand their production in Minneapolis.
• PediaPals is a pediatric medical-supply company located in Seward. They’ve just signed a joint venture to be the exclusive North American distributor of a Turkish medical-equipment manufacturer, diversifying their product line.
• Ruhel Islam, owner of Gandhi Mahal, will soon start bottling his mango lassis. This small-batch food-manufacturing venture is a perfect fit for the technical assistance and microloans available from the City’s Homegrown Business Development Center.

Another exciting development in entrepreneurship is the ongoing success of CoCo/Project Skyway. CoCo (which stands for “collaborative co-work”) is a creative work space where people working in different fields can work side by side, sparking new ideas and creating new products, and Project Skyway is Minnesota’s first accelerator for tech entrepreneurs. Earlier this year, they joined forces in the historic space that once housed the Minnesota Grain Exchange.

In just six months, they are fully subscribed with entrepreneurs in a wide variety of fields. Here are some of their success stories:

• Northstar Geographics: Originally a one-man company, NorthstarGIS expanded by hiring another CoCo member as its first employee. Now, the company is collaborating at CoCo with another GIS company to create new software products.
• Minnesota WordPress Hosting: After meeting at CoCo and discovering they had complimentary backgrounds in programming, search-engine optimization and hosting, Toby Cryns and Dave Allen launched this new business, now growing at a steady clip.
• Red Branch Software: Once a one-man show, in the past year this company has grown to three full-time staff and is expanding to a second location.
• Two startups — Mobile Realty Apps and Deals.by — teamed up to share a space at CoCo. Both companies have built intuitive smartphone apps to help people discover more about the world around them — whether homes for sale or deals at shops and restaurants nearby.

It’s clear: the Grain Exchange has become the Brain Exchange.

In September, I delivered my budget speech at CoCo/Project Skyway. I pointed out then that Minneapolis, which grew from a village on the edge of the prairie to a global economic powerhouse because of entrepreneurs and workers in the milling industry, is once again poised, thanks to entrepreneurship in so many new areas, to reinvent itself once again and lead the 21^st-century economy. That’s an incredibly exciting prospect.

J.J. Taylor is the largest beer distributor in Minnesota, moving 7,000,000 cases of beer a year. The company’s roots are in Minneapolis — their predecessor began in Northeast in 1933, right after Prohibition ended — but in recent years, they had been based in Arden Hills. Then three years ago, they moved back into Northeast Minneapolis, into a much larger facility in the Mid-City Industrial Area that many people will remember as the old Dayton’s furniture warehouse, and have invested several million dollars to upgrade it. 

J.J. Taylor is a good employer, too: their 245 employees (nearly half of whom are unionized Teamsters) earn an average of $56,000 a year, with good benefits. Not surprisingly, they have high seniority and very low turnover.

And they’re good citizens: they pay $14 million a year in federal, state and local taxes and play a big role in fighting underage drinking and alcohol addition.

Plus, a business’s moving from Arden Hills to Minneapolis is a direction that I like. 

Then on Friday, I will attend the grand opening of Fulton Beer’s new brewery in Minneapolis, where they will also sell growlers and give tours. Fulton is now our second brewery in town, joining Harriet Brewing, which earlier this year became the first non-brewpub brewery in Minneapolis since Grain Belt closed in 1975. 

One of the most important things we did at the City to help these breweries get started was simply to get out of the way. Before last year, City ordinances did not allow for the on-site sale of growlers (half-gallon jugs) of beer — but for small brewers like Harriet and Fulton, that’s an important way to make money. So we changed City ordinance to make it possible, and these brewers have followed. Fulton’s new brewery is creating eight new jobs in Minneapolis’ growing craft-beer industry.

Then earlier this year, we changed City ordinance again to make it possible for small and mid-size brewers to sell pints right at their breweries. Fulton plans to open a tap room next year — and I hope Surly Brewing will join them in Minneapolis very soon.

Beer is big business in Minnesota: the beer industry — brewers, distributors and retailers — employs more than 17,000 people, generates more than $2.7 billion in economic impact, and pays more than $155 million in taxes each year.

In Minneapolis, beer — like healthy, fresh, local food — is good business: brewing, distributing and retailing beer is putting people to work in good jobs and is making a big contribution to our growing restaurant and bar scene that is deservedly getting national attention. Beer is a big part of our history, and it’s big part of our future.