BrokenNails

Bao Vang has decided she will not run in the primary for the Ward 1 St. Paul City Council seat. Vang cited a lack of support from organizations that supported her in 2003 when she ran unsuccessfully for the seat. In a statement Vang said, “My love for our ward and our city, however, continues [...]

A study by Minnesota’s Legislative Auditor says some of the state’s small counties are falling behind in human services such as food stamps and collection of child support.
The study points to the complexity of the laws and other requirements, as well as funding calculations, as reason that many of the rural counties were falling so [...]

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This week the St. Paul City Council had a couple big things happen. St. Paul has put a temporary ban on the new electronic billboards. The City Council also opted to approve a new inspection program that will give inspectors access to one and two unit rentals.
The single electronic billboard, along I94 [...]

The Bridges of St. Paul development project likely won’t be getting a change in state law. The project originally called for $125 million in TIF money which HRA Director Cecile Bedor said in a letter last week would not be legal.
Senator Sandy Pappas who’s district the project is in said, “I do not support the [...]

A year ago in the State of the Union the president accused us, as a nation, of being addicted to oil. He didn’t ask us at that point to do anything about it, apparently it was just step 1 of admitting the problem. He didn’t ask us to sacrifice or cut back or think about [...]

Gov Tim Pawlenty focused on high school education in his budget proposal this week but among the talk of 3R schools and performance pay was a proposal to cap local government’s ability to raise property taxes. The proposal has rural Minnesota concerned.
The proposal would permanently limit 87 towns to the amount of revenue they currently [...]

In a meeting called through an ad in the Pioneer Press, the TriCouncil Task Force gathered Thursday to discuss the Bridges of St. Paul project. The project has created significant contention since the idea was formed by Jerry Trooien, developer and owner of JLT Inc., a development firm, due to the project’s size and a [...]

The Bridges of St. Paul will not be getting any TIF money. A letter from Cecile Bedor, St. Paul’s HRA director,  to Bridges developer Jerry Trooien on Thursday said the city had worked with outside legal counsel and determined that the land does not fit the definition of blight required by TIF.
The letter did offer an [...]

DFL Chair Brian Melendez responded to Governor Tim Pawlenty’s State of the State speech, “Big expensive proposals based on the idea of reform, but short on the details to sucessfully implement his words.”
Melendez stated, “It’s getting hard to view a speech by Governor Pawlenty as anything but an audition on the national stage.” He praised [...]

(Should be read from the bottom up.)
The Governor then launched into health care. He talked about improving access and reducing cost. He said that there are many different ways to achieve universal care without it being single payer or government funded. He placed the burden of cost containment on consumers. Pawlenty proposed MinnesotaCare2 which he [...]