Agenda - Council Work Session - 01/26/2016

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management practices for any reconstruction of infrastructure to lessen the impact of future disasters and to mitigate the effects of disasters resulting from future extreme weather events. FF -29. Impact Fees Issue: New development and the resulting growth create an increased demand for public infrastructure and other public facilities. Severe constraints on local fiscal resources and dramatic forecasts for population growth have prompted cities to reconsider ways to pay for the inevitable costs associated with new development. Traditional financing methods tend to subsidize new development at the expense of the existing community, discourage sound land -use planning, place inefficient pressures on public facilities, and allow under -utilization of existing infrastructure. Consequently, local communities are exploring methods to ensure new development pays its fair share of the true costs of growth. Given the existing authorization to impose fees on new development for water, sanitary and storm sewer, and park purposes, it is reasonable to extend the concept to additional public infrastructure and facilities improvement also necessitated by new development. Response: The Legislature should authorize local units of government to impose impact fees so new development pays its fair share of the off-site, as well as the on-site, costs of public infrastructure and other public facilities needed to adequately serve new development. FF -30. Library Funding Issue: State law requires that local governments maintain a minimum level of funding for public library services. This is collectively known as "state -certified levels of library support," or more commonly known as, "maintenance of effort (MOE)" and is described in Minn. Stat. § 134.34. A majority of public libraries in Minnesota belong a regional library system, which is the entity that receives library funding from the Minnesota Department of Education. Six of the 12 regional library systems are structured as a federated system where the individual libraries or library systems operate autonomously from the regional library system but they can utilize certain services such as inter -library loan distribution, digital card cataloging, which capitalize on economies of effort from partnering with the other libraries in the regional system. The MOE for cities in a federated library system is now set at 90% of the amount established in 2011 (see Minn. Stat. § 275.761). In 2011, it was calculated using a formula that included payments made in the form of the library employee salaries, payments toward operating the facility, purchasing materials from the library, and other operating costs, adjusted net tax capacity, and several other factors. The other half of the state's public library systems are consolidated systems, where the regional library system runs the libraries through a joint powers agreement with counties and participating cities. The regional library system has a board and hires the director. A city that participates in the regional system will have an MOE (calculated as described above). The city MOE may include dollars provided directly to the regional library system or operating dollars provided to support building costs (i.e. city -provided maintenance services). In the metropolitan area, the seven county library systems and one city library system belong to the Metropolitan Library Services Agency (MELSA), the metro area regional library system. Most of the cities that League of Minnesota Cities 2016 City Policies Page 110