Samuels Economic Development Plan.pdf

8/14/2019 Samuels Economic Development Plan.pdf

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Jobs and the Economy Samuels for Mayor

From its founding in 1867, Minneapolis has been a place of ingenuity, hard work, andhome to the next great wave of immigrants from around the world. These characteristicsof Minneapolis helped build and maintain the great pillars of our city: Fortune 500companies such as Pillsbury and General Mills, our beautiful lakes and MississippiRiver, and our bustling downtown atmosphere. Throughout the course of our history,Minneapolitans have always taken on tough challenges in a clear eyed fashion; nothiding behind excuses; we ve risen to the challenges of our time to maintain thegreatness of our city.

The future vitality of Minneapolis is dependent upon a strong, vibrant and productivecitizenry. Our parks are dependent upon the City having the resources to fund itsupkeep; our bike trails need funds to maintain their high quality; and our roads need

continual investment. We must have a profitable and strong economy to fund all of thethings we cherish in our City.

But today, the challenges our economy faces are much more interconnected andcomplex than in times past. We must be prepared to address these challenges. Thepressures of globalization, rapidly changing national, state and local demographics,persistent skills gaps, active competition for recruitment and retention of businesses andcrumbling infrastructure have all contributed to the tough economic climate we, as anation, have been fighting.

The Great Recession of 2008 exacerbated all of those factors. Although it s been toughon Minneapolis residents, the City of Minneapolis has fared well compared to othermajor American cities. Minneapolis is on strong financial footing due to strongleadership by city officials, heroic and painful sacrifices by city workers and residentsand investments that grew revenues to the city.

Now that the worst of the recession is behind us, we must re-position ourselves to thriveand ensure opportunity for all of our residents. We must be active and aggressive incontinuing to bring economic activity to Minneapolis

There are those who believe we can continue to make Minneapolis a great place and

that alone will ensure continued investments in our City. That passive approach won

tget the job done. I ll be the mayor to take us from where we are to where we need to go:


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Where We Are

Minneapolis' Economy At a Glance:

The Minneapolis area has an unemployment rate of 5.1%, which is much lowerthan the 7.8% national average. Leisure and Hospitality, Construction and Business Services sectors in theMinneapolis area have all seen more than 4% growth since 2010. The Minneapolis area has the sixth largest arts economy in the nation Minneapolis has seen a nearly 25% increase in the amount of residents withcollege degrees since 1970, currently putting Minneapolis five percentage pointsabove the national average.

On paper, Minneapolis has strong economic activity, growth in several sectors and solidindicators of investment. Yet, we know we have a persistent employment gap that,ultimately, can be a drag on our economic potential. We can t strengthen our economy ifwe continue to have huge disparities in employment. The Minneapolis DowntownCouncil has put forth a great roadmap, the Downtown 2025 Plan, for how to strengthenour economy and standard of living. In addition to those great ideas, I ve got a few of myown.


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Where We Need to Go:

As Mayor, when it comes to economic development, I ll focus on five areas: Workforce

Development, Business Development, Investments in - Connector - infrastructure,

Managing City Finances and Government Redesign.

________________Workforce Development

The City of Minneapolis can, and must, play a more active role in making sure ourpeople have the necessary skills to earn a living wage and provide for their families.Here's where I'll focus when it comes to workforce development:

Step-Up Expansion; Increase STEP-UP Program Summer Job Goal to 3,000 eachyear There s no doubt that the STEP-UP Summer Jobs program for Minneapolis Youth hasbeen a success. With some tinkering, we can make sure this program provides theneediest kids with opportunities to learn work ethic, jobs skills and other skills tosucceed later in life. But, most importantly, what these kids learn is to see themselvesas future business, philanthropic and civil leaders. STEP-UP has various componentprograms: STEP-UP Achieve, STEP-UP Discover and STEP-UP Explore, and thosecomponents can be better aligned to ensure that opportunity is placed on a continuumso it becomes developmental for the next generation of workers. Right now, STEP-UPserves about 1,800 kids each summer. This is a proven program that works. We need

to expand it. In addition to expanding it, I believe the City should utilize STEP-UP incollaboration with Urban Scholars, as coordinated pipeline programs for helping todiversify city departments, such as Public Works, Police and Fire, across theenterprise that are in need of more diversity. .

Re-introduce the Building Trades to our Middle and High School learners.

To be successful, Minneapolis must have a strong manufacturing and trades base oflabor. The trades provide a strong, unexportable, base for living wage jobs, as well asthe skills and expertise to help build the infrastructure of the 21st century. I envisionbuilding a thriving "green" manufacturing sector that we can grow in our city. But to do it,

we must make sure our future workforce is exposed at a young age to thesemanufacturing and trades opportunities.

Coordinate with U of M, MCTC, and Workforce Centers and Programs to aligncurriculum to needs of Minneapolis businesses


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Working with our fantastic higher education institutions and existing workforce programslike Summit Academy OIC, Workforce Centers, the University of Minnesota andMinneapolis Community and Technical Colleges, the City must be more active toconvene and help align the training and skills that local businesses need. We know thatworker turnover and training can be expensive and even cost prohibitive on small

businesses.Just to give you an idea of how expensive worker training and replacement can be: Forworkers earning less than $50,000 annually, which makes up 75% of the U.S.workforce, studies show a typical cost of turnover and training of up to 20% of theworker s salary: $10,000. By embedding specialized training programs into oureducational institutions, we can save costs for businesses and provide certainty so theyknow, when they hire an employee, they can be confident that their new employee willhave the necessary skills to help their business immediately.

As Mayor, I will expand and widen the Urban scholars Program, a pipeline for PromisingU of M and MnSCU students to work in the City Departments and challenge the privatesector to also create opportunities for these talented young people.. We are blessed tohave some of the best educational institutions right in our backyard. We have to do abetter job of showing talented young people how much we want them to stay inMinneapolis. This pipeline means we will be more active in providing soon-to-begraduates in certain programs with information about available public and private sector

jobs in Minneapolis. The human capital and 21st century innovations of our City willcome from our young and ambitious professionals.

________________Business Development

The Mayor and City Council can play a much more active role, along with CPED, inhelping local businesses expand as well as bringing business to Minneapolis. Asmayor, I'll focus on business development in a few ways:

I'll establish a City of Lakes Investment Fund (CLIF) with State Government &Downtown businesses. This fund would use targeted grants, loans and forgivable loansto recruit small and medium sized business to set up shop in Minneapolis. Thesebusinesses must sign agreements and meet specified job creation metrics, like numberof jobs created and wage rates. CLIF funds will be modeled after, and partner with, the

state of Minnesota

s two main economic development tools, the Minnesota InvestmentFund (MIF) and the Job Creation Fund (JCF). CLIFwill have one primary focus: helping to recruit businesses to set up shop in Minneapolis,and helping successful businesses already in the city to expand and grow.

In a global economy, we can't afford to just wait to see what comes to our borders; wemust proactively attract new and growing business to Minneapolis. As the Mayor ofMinneapolis, I will fight to bring jobs into our city.


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_____________Investment in Connector Infrastructure

As we work to increase the city population to 500,000, we must invest in infrastructurethat can take people to and from; we must do it in a way that helps lower our carbonfootprint, facilitates economic development along its corridors and reduces the need forcar use. As Mayor, I will commit to:

Invest in Street Cars for our intermediate transit corridors (Central Ave &Broadway Ave)

Street Cars are key to connect our residential communities with our mass transitsystems such as the Central Corridor and Hiawatha Light Rail lines. My plan is to alsohave a streetcar parallel to the Midtown Greenway. By connecting the middle of the cityto the Hiawatha light rail and soon to be Southwest Light Rail line, we take another steptowards our goal of creating an interconnected multi-modal transit system that cantransport people across the metropolitan area.

Expedite the Implementation of the Bottineau Light Rail Transit line,

By connecting all of the suburbs to Minneapolis proper; we give businesses certaintythat their workforce will have a convenient and environmentally friendly way to get toand from work. The northwestern part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area has not seensignificant transit investments, relative to other parts of the region. The Bottineau Lightrail Transit line is designed to help transport workers and residents from across that partof the region, which is long overdue and will encourage development.

Invest in the redevelopment of the Port of Minneapolis.

With the current lease agreement for the port coming to an end in 2014, we have anopportunity to set the stage for bringing a 21st century industry to a key part of the City.

Managing City Finances

I am proud of the successes that Mayor R.T. Rybak and I have achieved regarding thecitys finances. Because of the fiscal discipline and stewardship that Mayor Rybak and I

have led, the city s 2013 budget proposes cutting property taxes for the first time in over20 years.


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Watching Mayor Rybak give the 2013 budget address and state that he was asking fora $3.2 million property tax cut was ultimate validation of his strategy for governing thecity. His strategy for leading this City has undoubtedly worked, and I am proud to havebeen his most reliable partner in making his vision a reality. During the address, MayorRybak said I have been a stalwart ally and the only rock solid partner on every big

issue during his administration.

The Mayor went on to say that without my rock solid partnership, this $3.2 millionproperty tax cut would not have been possible. I am proud to have been Mayor Rybak sonly rock solid partner and the partner that voted for every proposal that enabled theCity to get its finances on the right track. Reducing property taxes will pay dividends forattracting young families and retaining residents, especially our seniors and workingclass homeowners. Mayor Rybak understands this and we cannot thank him enough forhis leadership in making Minneapolis a more financially sound City.

Now that City finances are on sound financial footing, we can t become complacent andallow our financial status to slip. This means we must make the critical investments toensure growth and opportunity for our economy and people, but it means we mustredesign specific government functions to meet the demands of a 21st century majorAmerican city. That will require us thinking about how we do things differently; how weinnovate; and how we hold the line on property taxes.

__________________Government Redesign

Often, politicians talk about how they are going to streamline government by getting rid

of fraud, waste and abuse and none of that ever becomes a reality. Well, I haveidentified several specific ways to streamline, make more transparent and make thedelivery of city services more efficient. Here are a few:

Fire Truck Deployment: Each quarter, Our Public Safety Results Minneapolis data isreviewed by a team lead by the mayor and me. That data has revealed that each year,there are roughly 24,600 dispatches of a fire department rig to respond to anemergency medical call. In each of these cases, the full fire rig is sent out, costing cityresidents about $500 per dispatch. Only about 1,300 discreet cases were actual fires.The vast majority of the cases are emergency medical service (EMS) assistance calls. Ifthe city deployed a smaller SUV truck in the EMS cases (which only cost roughly $250per dispatch), instead of deploying a full fire rig, we would save the city roughly $7million dollars every year. I m glad to see Mayor Rybak lead on this efficiency, and I willensure that it is fully implemented as the next Mayor.


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Streamline Business and Development Permit Process: When businesses anddevelopers undertake complex projects, they often have to apply for multiple licenses,which can delay or prolong the project by weeks, if not months. I propose we have a Project Green Light express lane for businesses that have a successful record ofproviding quality services to the city through licenses and contracts. The businessesthat have been accepted into Project Green Light will only need to submit onelicense/permit request per subsequent development project. This will not only alleviatethe burden on the already overworked licensing division but also help provenbusinesses get started on investing and creating jobs for our people.

Publish ALL Procurement Agreements and Contracts: It s important to know whatbusinesses have received contracts from the City, and who is benefitting financially.Currently, there is an unintended loophole that contracts between the City andbusinesses for less than $50,000 never see the light of day. I believe that the more lightwe shed on how we spend money, the more responsibly it will be spent. This willenhance our commitment and accountability to fiscal responsibility and inclusion.

End Tax Increment Financing (TIF): For much of the 1990s, City leaders used TIF as atool to finance projects by taking future revenue to pay for current projects. That use ofTIF robbed our city of future revenue and put us on a path of debt and increasedborrowing. After a decade of strong leadership by Mayor Rybak, we've finally paid backthe debt of the 1990's. We can't go back. As Mayor, I will not support finance tools thatcapture future tax revenue to pay for today's developments.

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This is how we connect people to the opportunities of the future, ensure investments incritical infrastructure and continue on the path of fiscal responsibility. My plan will bringbusiness leaders and investors to Minneapolis by providing incentives for businesses torelocate and access our highly talented workforce. Together, we will continue to buildthe foundation for a 21st century economy that will bring sustainable prosperity to thepeople of Minneapolis.

Documents

Samuels Economic Development Plan.pdf