For this exercise I’d like you to drive down old Highway 8 where the old post office used to be. Take a good look on both sides of the road. What you see is a barren wasteland. This was supposed to be the grand redevelopment of the Northwest Quadrant. What went wrong? How did we get here? Why are we as much as $100 Million in debt because of it?
I want to stop here and make a quick comparison to New London, Connecticut. That’s where Susette Kelo sued the city to keep her home and land. That city wanted to throw her and her neighbors out through eminent domain just to give the land to another company who promised more in tax revenue. Kelo ultimately lost her case in the U.S. Supreme Court, with the court saying that in America, a city can toss you out in favor of another owner if it can get more tax money. Our illustrious Mayor, Steve Larson, praised the case at the time. But most homeowners simmered in disgust.
Both New London and New Brighton cases are alike in that the real reason the cities took the course they did was to increase their tax base. Redevelopment was secondary. In other words there was no positive benefit to the average taxpayer. City government just wanted to grow. If it succeeded in bringing more taxes, there’d be no break for current taxpayers. Call it empire building. Call it greed. But don’t call it benign.
The plans in both cities seemed to blow up in the planners faces. Today, the New London site with nary a taxpaying home, is just as barren as the Northwest Quadrant without the taxpaying businesses that used to be there.
If the wind isn’t blowing dust in your face, take a stroll across the road and sit in one of the park benches overlooking the wasteland. Ahhh, the memories come flooding back. Like the time State Senator Satveer Chaudhary wrote a letter to the editor claiming full credit for getting Medtronic to move to New Brighton. That irritated Steve Larson because he wanted the credit for himself. Except credit was premature. Medtronic wanted nothing to do with contamination and cleanup that the New Brighton site had. So they decided to build in Mounds View which already had a clean site.
With Medtronic out of the picture, panic ensued at City Hall. They dusted off an old Bob Benke-era plan for redevelopment. The thinking was "Hey! How about high density housing instead of businesses". Rottlund homes was signed up and they were off to the races, counting their winnings, projecting streams of incoming dollars far into the future. But hardly anyone wanted the new housing. Rottlund pulled out. Suddenly, payment on bonds were coming due. And the tax money they counted on from the housing would not materialize for years, if ever. What to do? What to do?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The build-up to the wasteland had some twists and turns. It’s coming back to me now. After buying the Keys Café and the bowling alley, the city made a special point of letting weeds grow around them. Even though it was their own property, they took photos as proof of “blight” that they could use for redevelopment presentations. An old Grandma and Grandpa were given an offer they couldn’t refuse. The city took their house and land. A quiet taxpaying company with more than 30 employees called Signation was threatened with eminent domain action. The owner begged the council not shut down his business because of the loss of jobs. A dispassionate council member simply said that many jobs are lost for other reasons. So tough luck.
Removing thriving taxpaying businesses was a specialty of New Brighton before reform. No matter though. The thinking was that taxpayers had plenty of money and could be relied on to back up any plan gone bad. Who cares anyway? It wasn’t their money.
When the city finally got around to Midwest Asphalt, the company knew it had an ace up its sleeve. The land had contamination and they did not want to get stuck with the cleanup liability. So they cut a sweet deal with the city paying them millions to move and the city taking on the full liability for the cleanup. That is, the citizens of New Brighton were on the hook for it. Meanwhile, eminent domain reform legislation was passed at the state legislature. City hall and Mayor Larson lobbied hard for delay in the effective date so the last businesses could be bought up and booted out under the old rules.
Some prominent names should be referenced here. In 2003 Sharon Doffing was elected to the council, and right away started fighting the eminent domain mentality. Even though she was often outvoted, Mayor Larson now had a thorn in his side. From that time on, he was not as free to tax, spend and scheme as he wanted. In 2005 Gina Bauman, was elected to the council and since then we had extra sharp eyes on the budget. The accounting lifers at city hall groaned because their old tricks weren’t good anymore. In 2007, Dave Phillips came on board to add a voice of reason to development plans. I want to emphasize that these three people are benefits to the city and should be held harmless regarding any of the current problems of the city such as the NW Quadrant mess.
In early 2008, a humble Dean Lotter, the City Manager, told us in somber tones at the town hall meeting that our household property taxes would be going up $1,000 or more starting in 2010 due to the Rottlund pullout. There were few choices. But then they got a reprieve. Special state legislation was passed to allow New Brighton to pool funds from other TIF districts – Brightondale and Main Street Village I think – to offset the big negatives at NW Quadrant Rottlund site.
Understand that this legislation did save the typical household from unusually large tax increases in the short run. That’s good.
What’s bad is the hubris displayed by Steve Larson and the city manager. Now suddenly they are beating their chests and calling any disagreement or criticism "misinformation". Not only that, they’ve labeled current tax and spending “Smart Taxation.” So that is what the citizens of New Brighton must put up with during this election cycle. Instead of admitting error in handling NW Quadrant, racking up debt with little chance to recoup, and only being saved by new rules at the state, (the debt does not disappear, it still has to be paid, just from a different source) we get boasting and bragging!
The barren wasteland should remind you of the need for vigilance. Steve Larson and his followers – and the friends that he listens to – yearn for the good old days when they were largely unchecked. They want more of your money for the next Taj Mahal, the next decorative fountain, the next bike trail to nowhere, the next monument to themselves, the next stairway to utopian heaven. Any taxes exacted from you is "free" money to them. A New Brighton without Steve Larson is a New Brighton on the way to fiscal sanity and good sense for the long haul.
I want to stop here and make a quick comparison to New London, Connecticut. That’s where Susette Kelo sued the city to keep her home and land. That city wanted to throw her and her neighbors out through eminent domain just to give the land to another company who promised more in tax revenue. Kelo ultimately lost her case in the U.S. Supreme Court, with the court saying that in America, a city can toss you out in favor of another owner if it can get more tax money. Our illustrious Mayor, Steve Larson, praised the case at the time. But most homeowners simmered in disgust.
Both New London and New Brighton cases are alike in that the real reason the cities took the course they did was to increase their tax base. Redevelopment was secondary. In other words there was no positive benefit to the average taxpayer. City government just wanted to grow. If it succeeded in bringing more taxes, there’d be no break for current taxpayers. Call it empire building. Call it greed. But don’t call it benign.
The plans in both cities seemed to blow up in the planners faces. Today, the New London site with nary a taxpaying home, is just as barren as the Northwest Quadrant without the taxpaying businesses that used to be there.
If the wind isn’t blowing dust in your face, take a stroll across the road and sit in one of the park benches overlooking the wasteland. Ahhh, the memories come flooding back. Like the time State Senator Satveer Chaudhary wrote a letter to the editor claiming full credit for getting Medtronic to move to New Brighton. That irritated Steve Larson because he wanted the credit for himself. Except credit was premature. Medtronic wanted nothing to do with contamination and cleanup that the New Brighton site had. So they decided to build in Mounds View which already had a clean site.
With Medtronic out of the picture, panic ensued at City Hall. They dusted off an old Bob Benke-era plan for redevelopment. The thinking was "Hey! How about high density housing instead of businesses". Rottlund homes was signed up and they were off to the races, counting their winnings, projecting streams of incoming dollars far into the future. But hardly anyone wanted the new housing. Rottlund pulled out. Suddenly, payment on bonds were coming due. And the tax money they counted on from the housing would not materialize for years, if ever. What to do? What to do?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The build-up to the wasteland had some twists and turns. It’s coming back to me now. After buying the Keys Café and the bowling alley, the city made a special point of letting weeds grow around them. Even though it was their own property, they took photos as proof of “blight” that they could use for redevelopment presentations. An old Grandma and Grandpa were given an offer they couldn’t refuse. The city took their house and land. A quiet taxpaying company with more than 30 employees called Signation was threatened with eminent domain action. The owner begged the council not shut down his business because of the loss of jobs. A dispassionate council member simply said that many jobs are lost for other reasons. So tough luck.
Removing thriving taxpaying businesses was a specialty of New Brighton before reform. No matter though. The thinking was that taxpayers had plenty of money and could be relied on to back up any plan gone bad. Who cares anyway? It wasn’t their money.
When the city finally got around to Midwest Asphalt, the company knew it had an ace up its sleeve. The land had contamination and they did not want to get stuck with the cleanup liability. So they cut a sweet deal with the city paying them millions to move and the city taking on the full liability for the cleanup. That is, the citizens of New Brighton were on the hook for it. Meanwhile, eminent domain reform legislation was passed at the state legislature. City hall and Mayor Larson lobbied hard for delay in the effective date so the last businesses could be bought up and booted out under the old rules.
Some prominent names should be referenced here. In 2003 Sharon Doffing was elected to the council, and right away started fighting the eminent domain mentality. Even though she was often outvoted, Mayor Larson now had a thorn in his side. From that time on, he was not as free to tax, spend and scheme as he wanted. In 2005 Gina Bauman, was elected to the council and since then we had extra sharp eyes on the budget. The accounting lifers at city hall groaned because their old tricks weren’t good anymore. In 2007, Dave Phillips came on board to add a voice of reason to development plans. I want to emphasize that these three people are benefits to the city and should be held harmless regarding any of the current problems of the city such as the NW Quadrant mess.
In early 2008, a humble Dean Lotter, the City Manager, told us in somber tones at the town hall meeting that our household property taxes would be going up $1,000 or more starting in 2010 due to the Rottlund pullout. There were few choices. But then they got a reprieve. Special state legislation was passed to allow New Brighton to pool funds from other TIF districts – Brightondale and Main Street Village I think – to offset the big negatives at NW Quadrant Rottlund site.
Understand that this legislation did save the typical household from unusually large tax increases in the short run. That’s good.
What’s bad is the hubris displayed by Steve Larson and the city manager. Now suddenly they are beating their chests and calling any disagreement or criticism "misinformation". Not only that, they’ve labeled current tax and spending “Smart Taxation.” So that is what the citizens of New Brighton must put up with during this election cycle. Instead of admitting error in handling NW Quadrant, racking up debt with little chance to recoup, and only being saved by new rules at the state, (the debt does not disappear, it still has to be paid, just from a different source) we get boasting and bragging!
The barren wasteland should remind you of the need for vigilance. Steve Larson and his followers – and the friends that he listens to – yearn for the good old days when they were largely unchecked. They want more of your money for the next Taj Mahal, the next decorative fountain, the next bike trail to nowhere, the next monument to themselves, the next stairway to utopian heaven. Any taxes exacted from you is "free" money to them. A New Brighton without Steve Larson is a New Brighton on the way to fiscal sanity and good sense for the long haul.
