Agenda - Council - 01/24/2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Metropolitan Agencies services, as well as its geographical jurisdiction, to ensure that the Metropolitan Council's services are positioned to be effective and adequate in addressing the future needs of the region. Such work must include the participation of local officials. The Metropolitan Council should also examine its scope of services to determine their benefit and efficiency, and be open to alternative methods of delivery to assure that services are provided at high levels of effectiveness for the region. Metro Cities supports appropriate legislative oversight of the Metropolitan Council, to regularly review the Council's activities, and to provide transparency and accountability of its functions and operations. 4-D Funding Regional Services The Metropolitan Council should continue to fund its regional services and activities through a combination of user fees, property taxes, and state and federal grants. The Council should set user fees via an open process that includes public notices and public hearings. User fees should be uniform by type of user and set at a level that supports effective and efficient public services based on commonly accepted industry standards, and allows for sufficient reserves to ensure long-term service and fee stability. Fee proceeds should be used to fund regional services or programs for which they are collected. Metro Cities supports the use of property taxes and user fees to fund regional projects so long as the benefit conferred on the region is proportional to the fee or tax, and the fee or tax is comparable to the benefit cities receive in return. 4-E Regional Systems Regional systems are statutorily defined as transportation, aviation, wastewater treatment and recreational open space. The purpose of these regional systems and the Metropolitan Council's authority over them is clearly outlined in state statute. In order to alter the focus or expand the reach of any of these systems, the Metropolitan Council must seek a statutory change. The system plans prepared by the Metropolitan Council for the regional systems should be specific in terms of the size, location and timing of regional investments in order to allow for consideration in local comprehensive planning. System plans should clearly state the criteria by which local plans will be judged for consistency and the criteria that will be used to find that a local plan is more likely than not to have a substantial impact on or contain a substantial departure from metropolitan system plans. Additional regional systems should be established only if there is a compelling metropolitan problem or concern that can best be addressed through the designation. Common characteristics of the four existing regional systems include public ownership of the system and its components and an established regional or state funding 2017 Legislative Policies 41