Board Votes Down Extension of “Card Check” in Hennepin County

One of the political issues that will soon dominate the news coming out of Washington, D.C. is “card check” (a.k.a. The Employee Free Choice Act), the proposed change to federal law which would, in essence, take away the right to a private ballot for employees in a union organizing campaign.

The Hennepin County Board yesterday had its own mini-battle over a very similar issue. Here’s the story:

Another good story from Tom Hauser, this time about the garbage burner landscaping that received last week’s Golden Fire Hydrant:

Just a note: The shots in the story of the trashy building and littered street are not shots of the garbage burner property; they are pictures taken down the street from the garbage burner.  The actual garbage burner property is currently very neat and clean and already has landscaping in place (just not the gold-standard landscaping that the taxpayers are about to fund).

County Spends $700,000 on Landscaping at Garbage Burner

The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (“HERC” a.k.a. “the garbage burner”) is a hulking complex in Minneapolis next to the new Twins stadium that can often be seen billowing smoke on a cold winter morning. It’s not a bad looking place (as far as county garbage burners go). It’s clean, neat and tastefully painted in pale tan with chocolate brown accent walls. “Not bad-looking”, however, just doesn’t cut it anymore for the HERC, at least not now that higher class neighbors are about to move in.

Last month, the county board approved a $1.95 million project to make the HERC look and smell a little better. 

Friday’s Star Tribune carried a story by Mary Jane Smetanka regarding this blog and its effect on the Hennepin County Board:

New member skewers Hennepin County Board
MARY JANE SMETANKA, Star Tribune

After being on the losing side of budget votes more often than he expected, new Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson has started a blog that takes some light-hearted pokes at projects that he considers wasteful.

Johnson’s blog features the same image of a surly looking bulldog that was on the “Taxpayer Watchdog” campaign literature that helped him win the Seventh District board seat last fall. On the blog, Johnson awards “Golden Hydrant” awards that figuratively lift a leg on projects he dislikes.

Minnesota Finance & Commerce published a front-page story about this blog and our first two Golden Hydrant awards yesterday, including a response from Hennepin County Board Chairman Mike Opat.  It was a balanced and fair assessment:

Hennepin County Commissioner Johnson takes his budget scrutiny online

by Bob Geiger Staff Writer

After being on the short end of many 6-1 votes, Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson has launched an Internet weblog to help police fiscal spending by the seven-member board governing Minnesota’s most populous county.

Johnson, a former Republican House member who in 2008 succeeded Penny Steele election in the county’s sprawling Seventh District, is criticizing excessive or wasteful spending in his Hennepin County Taxpayer Watchdog blog.

New solar panels will save taxpayers $15,000 per year in energy costs – starting in 2070

We in Hennepin County government have recently been congratulating ourselves about the new solar panels just installed on the county’s Public Works building in Medina.  The panels are touted as a great success story for county taxpayers because they are saving $15,000 per year in energy costs.

I believe this sort of project can be a great use of taxpayer dollars.  If there are “green” improvements that we can make to county buildings that save us money down the road (within a reasonable period of time), I’m on board.

When I was first told about the panels, I asked what I assumed was a simple and relevant question: How much did the panels cost; how long before they have paid for themselves and the taxpayers start realizing this $15,000 annual savings?

Welcome to the Hennepin County Taxpayer Watchdog – a blog dedicated to informing the taxpayers of one of America’s largest counties how their money is really being spent.

I am a member of the 7-member Hennepin County Board of Commissioners myself.  I was first elected to the Board last November and sworn in this January.  In my first few months, I’ve been amazed at the reach of the $1.7 billion annual county budget (larger than several state budgets) and the sometimes curious (and sometimes outrageous) ways this money is spent.  As Hennepin County government actions largely fly under the media radar screen – despite our tremendous impact on your individual and business property taxes – I felt it time to provide an insider perspective.

Hennepin County Funds Sex Ed Teachers in Richfield and Brooklyn Center Public Schools

Since my first day on the Hennepin County Board, I’ve been hearing regularly about how the county has cut the fat out of government and is now cutting into bone; that the Governor has decimated county aid to such an extent that we can no longer adequately provide even some of the basic functions of county government.

The problem with that assertion, of course, is the same problem that exists when the argument is used about government budgets at nearly every level: If decision-makers would learn to prioritize and spend less money on those things that are NOT basic functions of government, it would be much easier to fund those things that ARE basic functions of government.