Editorial: Estimate board foils city accountability

Its functions belong in Minneapolis City Council hands.

Last update: October 29, 2009 - 10:53 AM

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More than a few Minneapolitans -- conscientious citizens all -- have told us that until this fall they knew almost nothing about the city's Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET). The six-member board that sets the city's maximum tax levy has operated in such obscurity that it came into view only when a charter amendment proposed its elimination.

That much ignorance is understandable, given the oddity and complexity of the city's governance structure. It's also an indictment of the status quo. We urge a "yes" vote next Tuesday on Charter Amendment No. 168, which would, in effect, disband the BET and assign its functions to the City Council.

In a state that prides itself on open, transparent and accountable government, the BET is a peculiarity. Composed of the mayor, the City Council president, the chair of the council's Ways and Means Committee, a member of the Park and Recreation Board and two elected members, the board usually meets monthly and garners little notice.

But its responsibilities are substantial. In addition to setting the city's maximum levy, it also oversees internal audits and authorizes the issue of general obligation bonds.

In most other cities, those functions are assigned to the City Council and mayor, who are charged with balancing residents' desire for services with their appetite and capacity for taxation. No single entity bears that full responsibility in Minneapolis. As a result, it's too easy for all but the two council members who sit on the BET to tell voters with complaints, "That's not my doing."

Resistance to folding the functions of the BET into the City Council is strongest from the other elected body with a BET seat, the Park and Recreation Board. Its leaders argue that without BET protection, the City Council will run roughshod over park budgets and eventually damage the finest urban park system in the land.

That claim strikes us as backwards. Parks seem more at risk under the current arrangement, especially during lean times. Divorcing the City Council from parks invites it to try to gobble up tax capacity for the functions it controls, public safety and infrastructure, and muscle its wishes through the lowly BET, which serves to shield the council from voters' wrath. Protection for parks would be strengthened, not weakened, if voters could hold every elected official at City Hall accountable for their well-being.

Just as important is protection for taxpayers. BET defenders argue that it serves to restrain the tax bite of the City Council and Park Board. But not once in recent years has the BET set a levy ceiling lower than the one recommended by the mayor and City Council. The BET seems structured to settle disputes between the council and the Park Board by raising the tax ceiling, not lowering it.

Neither has the separation of powers at City Hall produced a robust internal audit function. To the contrary: Internal auditing has been so weak that complaints about it have become a theme in this year's mayoral campaign.

Now's the time to untangle the lines of accountability at City Hall. With state aid declining and city pension obligations swelling, Minneapolis is in for a severe financial squeeze in coming years. Giving the City Council and mayor clear authority over both the spending and taxing side of the budget ledger should help assure that the city's choices match voters' wishes.

ELECTION 2009

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