Lori Sturdevant: All for one, one for all? Not just now in Minnesota

Maybe it's because I'd just given a talk extolling Minnesota as "one state" -- with a history of aggregating its resources and using them to solve problems that other states leave to the locals -- that the recent news from Red Wing caught my eye.

On Oct. 21, an administrative law judge rejected that city's contention that Xcel Energy ought to cough up additional payments to compensate for the public safety burden associated with being the hometown of a growing nuclear power plant.

"There has been no showing in this proceeding that imposing a dedicated payment to the city to pay for emergency services is needed to ameliorate any social, economic or environmental impact," Judge Richard C. Luis wrote.

That dismissive language was embedded in Luis' recommendation that Xcel be allowed to increase both the electricity output and the dry cask nuclear storage capacity at the Prairie Island nuclear generating plant. Originally licensed to operate the plant through about 2013, Xcel is seeking to renew its lease for another 20 years. That request goes next to the state Public Utilities Commission. Action is expected later this month.

I'll set aside larger questions about the merits of Xcel's request for now. What I heard was the howl that ensued from Red Wing City Hall.

"The city has all of the responsibility of being the first responder to an incident at the plant, but limited fiscal means to ensure that this response will be effective in the future," said Red Wing City Council Member Lisa Pritchard Bayley, an attorney.

"Limited fiscal means." Red Wing, welcome to the Minnesota Municipal Hard Times Club.

Not long ago, cities lucky enough to be home to privately owned megafacilities -- power plants, shopping centers, factories and the like -- were shielded from the storms that buffeted other local and state budgets. Those fortunate places could levy a little and rake in a lot, especially when the state's tax structure was stacked against business property in favor of homeowners.

But tax reform in 2001 more fairly divided the tax load, in ways that pained homeowners in formerly fortunate cities. Since then, power companies have won further tax concessions at the Legislature.

The result: In Red Wing, according to Mayor John Howe, Xcel paid property taxes of nearly $24 million to city, county and school governments in 1995. Last year, the big utility's local tax bill was less than $11 million. And the city of Red Wing is in budget trouble.

State aid to cities in general and special help to power plant hosts in particular was supposed to make up for some of the lost tax revenue from Xcel. But courtesy of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's two rounds of unallotment, the city is in for a $1.8 million state aid cut from December 2008 through 2010. An expected $1.5 million this year in special assistance to Red Wing is turning out to be just $600,000.

The upshot, Howe said, is that the city is shrinking its police force and setting aside any notion of building the two new fire stations that a recent study said it needs. About 20 percent of the city's 150 jobs are going unfilled to save money.

Lots of other Minnesota cities are doing similar things. But those others don't have two nuclear reactors and a few dozen casks full of radioactive waste nearby.

"It shouldn't be good enough for Red Wing to have merely adequate police and fire protection," the mayor said. "We ought to have superior police and fire protection."

If this is still "one state" Minnesota, Howe's argument is fairly directed not at local taxpayers, but at state ones. It ought to matter to Minnesotans who don't live anywhere near Red Wing whether its first responders are perpetually up to the special responsibilities they would bear in the event of an incident at Prairie Island.

Similarly, it ought to matter beyond their borders whether Rochester can handle its daily influx of patients and medical employees, St. Cloud and Mankato their commuting students, Brainerd and Alexandria their seasonal tourists, and more. Power plant cities are special cases. But a lot of cities have needs that must be met for the state's sake as well as their own.

How willing Minnesota is to continue to operate as a single economic, political and cultural unit is much in question right now.

Twice in this decade, the program that best embodies the "one state" philosophy, local government aid, has taken a major hit when the state has fallen into deficit.

Some prominent voices in the Republican Party say the very concept of state aid to local government is flawed and encourages local overspending. And some DFLers -- including the mayor of the state's largest city, who appears to be running for governor -- have been saying that the existing arrangement between the state and its cities is dysfunctional and should be revised.

But none of the gubernatorial wannabes is saying much about where their ideas would leave cities and the Minnesotans who count on them.

Red Wing Council Member Bayley observed that until recent years in Minnesota, "we've had a wonderful feeling here that we take care of each other. That's going away now. It seems as if everyone is out for themselves." She hopes that in the matter of public safety funding in Red Wing, somebody at the statehouse will prove her wrong.

Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist. She is at lsturdevant@startribune.com.