If you’ve ever dropped an idea into the suggestion box at a store or your workplace, chances are pretty good that nothing ever happened with it. A manager maybe emptied the box at the end of the month, skimmed through the notes, possibly relayed one or two to his manager, then tossed them all into the nearest blue recycling bin.

The time you spent scribbling with a stubby pencil on a quarter-sheet of paper probably went to waste.

Idea flow is a challenge even for companies with a reputation for feeding off employee and customer suggestions. Take Best Buy. The consumer electronics retailer has a culture that encourages employees to speak up when they have thoughts for improving the company. But until recently it hasn’t had a place to collect and organize those suggestions where they wouldn’t get lost in shuffle.

“It was a part of our nature that we weren’t fully taking advantage of,” says Joshua Kahn, manager of emerging media technology for Best Buy.

That started to change a few years ago with the advent of social media, including Blue-Shirt Nation, the in-house network that allows Best Buy employees from around the world to connect with one another.

Now, the company is developing a new tool: a social, virtual, online suggestion box aimed at capturing — and capitalizing on — ideas submitted by its customers and employees from around the world.

The project is called Best Buy IdeaX, and it launched in May 2009. In a few weeks, the company expects to publish an open-source version, allowing anyone else to use the code for free as long as they share improvements with Best Buy and all other users. The release will mark the first time the retailer has ever issued a program as an open-source project.

The bulletin board might be a better analogy than the suggestion box, because notes submitted on Best Buy IdeaX aren’t tucked away into a dark chest. They’re posted on a public website for the whole world to see.

Customers, employees, investors, vendors, activists, competitors, or anyone else with a suggestion can visit http://bestbuyideax.com, type their idea into a text box, add category tags, then click a ‘share my idea’ button to post it.

Once an idea has been added to the site, other users can vote to support the idea and/or add their comments to the discussion. A ‘Popular Ideas’ page lists the ideas that have received the most votes from users.

About 4,600 ideas have been submitted so far. The most popular: “Get rid of those stupid plastic boxes that are way to hard to open,” which has 58 votes.

Offering electronic receipts instead of paper receipts is among the most popular ideas with 53 votes. Free in-store wi-fi has received 36 votes. Other suggestions include doing a better job promoting recycling, giving customers in-store instead of mail-in rebates, and featuring more compact discs by local musicians.

Kahn can’t point to an example yet of an idea that’s gone form IdeaX all the way to implementation. But a few of the more popular ideas cover areas the company was already working on, including electronic receipts and in-store wi-fi. In those cases, IdeaX has helped to affirm “customers or field employees are caring about the same things we’re thinking about at corporate,” Kahn says.

Customers and employees have used the site, although users skew toward employees because there’s been minimal external promotion as of now. Best Buy is currently working with an agency to prepare a campaign to get the word about IdeaX out to the public. In addition to raising awareness and branding the site, the next stage will include coming up with a method for making sure ideas are being connected to the right people within the company.

“What we need to do is operationalize that kind of activity so that the ideas aren’t starting to pool and flood,” says Kahn. “Otherwise, if we don’t get this chain, then we’ll just have stagnation and it’ll feel like a black hole to people who are submitting ideas, and they’ll stop.”

The other, next big phase of the project will be taking it open-source. Kahn was estimating the open-source release would be ready in a few weeks, although an official release date hadn’t been finalized.

Giving away a program may seem like an unusual step for a large, Midwestern retailer, especially an electronic retailer that sells software and applications, but Kahn says the move fits into Best Buy’s open-social strategy of doing business. In part, sharing IdeaX is about “good business karma,” he says. But the program stands to benefit by making it a community project.

“We felt like we stood to gain more by doing it open-source than not. There’s no risk to us. In fact, it’s all upside. When you open source you have other developers, other brains looking at it and figuring out what to do with it, different ways to improve it,” says Kahn. “It’s almost like letting an ecosystem grow around the thing you built, and that actually makes it healthier, where if you put walls up around a thing, you don’t have the same opportunity for collaboration, for learning, for improvement.”

So was there hesitation within the company about sharing an application that might even be used by a competitor? No, not really, says Kahn.

“The features on the site, the way the platform works, all that stuff, there’s value in it, of course, but it’s not the value from which we make money,” says Kahn. “The value from which we make money is the intellectual property that comes from ideas being generated on the site.”

Kahn says he’s heard from a couple people who have expressed some interest in using the open-source version. It’s not the only product of its kind. SalesForce.com, for example, offers a product that can do essentially the same thing. Best Buy built its own because it was able to do so (with BustOut Solutions) for about a tenth the cost of a year of SalesForce’s product.

Small companies or organizations with a do-it-yourself cultures will probably be the ones most likely to take a look at the open-source version (which is called BBYIDX). It’s not an off-the-shelf product. The open-source package includes the code for the engine, but companies will still need a developer to build the design and host and maintain the site.

Originally published Feb. 8, 2010, on BringMeTheNews.com.

Nelson is coordinator for Project Haiti, a medical relief group that’s delivered doctors and supplies to the country during annual mission trips since 1989.

It’s among the dozens of small organizations nationwide rushing to help meet the big need for food, water and other essentials as the nation digs out from the rubble of last Tuesday’s deadly 7.0 earthquake.

“The outpouring of help has been just phenomenal,” said Nelson, a retired nurse who is also secretary and treasurer of Project Haiti.

Since Tuesday, the organization has received more than $16,000 in donations. Those gifts are being used to purchase food and medical supplies, which are now piling up in boxes in Nelson’s garage.

The truck that leaves on Wednesday will drive to Miami, Fla., where its contents will be transferred onto a military cargo jet and flown to Pignon, Haiti, about 60 miles north of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The supplies will be accompanied by a team of doctors and nurses, including Nelson, she hopes.

Project Haiti has a long-running relationship with a village hospital in Pignon. Past mission projects have focused on expanding and improving the facility, including the addition of a second floor, two new operating rooms and upgraded equipment.

The top priority this time around will be making sure the hospital has enough staff and supplies to operate, said Nelson. The facility wasn’t damaged in the earthquake, but it is now contending with a surge in patients along with a dwindling supply of food, fuel and other necessities.

“They’re in a real hard way,” said Nelson.

The shipment will include things such as needles, medicines and feeding tubes, she said. They’re also packing food for themselves and the people of the surrounding area.

For Nelson, it will be her 42nd trip to Haiti. The first was in 1989 after Project Haiti co-founder Dr. Paul Severson, a surgeon at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in Crosby, Minn., asked her to join a mission.

Aside from the compacted schedule, preparations for this trip haven’t been too different from those for Project Haiti’s annual trips.

“It’s pretty much the same routine,” Nelson said, “only on a bigger scale.”

Thankfully, that bigger scale has been accompanied by a bigger outpouring of support, she said.

“The people in Haiti suffer so much, but the world didn’t really know that until this earthquake,” Nelson said. “Finally people are really taking notice that these are the poorest of the poor people.”

Project Haiti donations may be sent to Project Haiti, 123 Minnesota Ave. S, Aitkin, MN 56431. Nelson can be reached at 218-927-2634 or projecthaiti@charter.net.

“We appreciate everything everybody is doing for us,” Nelson said. “We won’t let them down.”

Originally published Jan. 18, 2010, on BringMeTheNews.com.

A pair of “co-working” centers opened this week in St. Paul, one in downtown and another in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood.

The centers are independent of each other, but both were inspired by similar hubs on the East and West coasts. The idea is to create a place where self-employed and telecommuting professionals can come together to work, and also benefit from some of the socializing, networking and collaborating that happens in a conventional office.

“It’s not really an office, and it’s not really a coffee shop, but it’s this other, third place and we go there to get work done plus socialize,” said Garrick Van Buren, a Twin Cities web developer who has followed the co-working movement on his blog.

The economy makes it an especially good time to experiment with co-working because many workers are in transition and there’s a surplus of commercial office space, he said.

Members pay daily or monthly fees for access to a workstation, an Internet connection and other office amenities such as a conference room, projector and kitchenette.

Zack Steven co-founded The 3rd Place with his partners at Monkey Island Inc., a technology and social media consulting group whose projects include a hyperlocal classifieds website and a local Twitter directory.

“We want it to be a place where curious, creative people come to get stuff done,” Steven said, “and a place where people can be a part of a community.”

The 1,200-square-foot storefront on Como Avenue has room for about a dozen telecommuters. The price model encourages people to pay $55 per month to use the space one day a week, with each weekday geared at different group of professionals.

Mary Lou Sweet, a neighbor of Steven, is one of The 3rd Place’s first members. She’s an independent consultant for a custom publisher that turns family histories and photo albums into professional-looking hardcover picture books.

Up until now, she’s had to ask customers to come to her home to compile information and scan photographs. Now, every Tuesday she can offer public office hours when customers can visit with less hassle. “It’s a huge solution for me,” Sweet said.

Across town, another group of entrepreneurs is trying a bigger and broader co-working experiment in the Lowertown neighborhood called CoCo, which also opened Monday.

CoCo consists of more than 8,000 square feet of downtown business loft-style space with capacity for up to 40 telecommuters to make themselves at home. The center sells day passes for $35, with larger commitment deals that bring the price under $20 a day.

Co-founder Don Ball sees it as an “innovation hub” with co-working at the center. It also offers meeting room rental and is seeking to attract a mix of permanent tenants, even from larger companies, that want to be a part of the atmosphere.

“You’re tending to your own stuff, but in the spare moments you’re throwing comments at each other,” Ball said. The hope is those small interactions lead to some serandipity, perhaps business connections or partnerships that wouldn’t have otherwise been made.

A third Twin Cities co-working effort is waiting for just that – partnerships – before launching an entirely different concept later this year.

Stephen Filing is glad to see co-working experiments popping in the Twin Cities, but he’s skeptical about their business models. He’s exploring what he calls “more of a strip-mall concept,” inspired by the success of places like Snap Fitness and Anytime Fitness.

“The proliferation of the compact fitness center played on two things: price and proximity,” Filing said.

He’s doesn’t believe most telecommuters will pay much or travel very far to use a co-working facility. That’s why he’s looking to partner with a larger company to help launch a chain of small and easily franchised facilities.

“I’m not altruistic about it, and I think too many people are,” Filing said. “I don’t want to put something together than can’t sustain itself.”

Van Buren is another co-working booster who has questions about the sustainability of some of the models that have been attempted or discussed.

A few have failed because they took on too many expenses, buying high-end Herman Miller furnishings, for example, instead of seeking out discount or second-hand products.

Another challenge will be retaining members as the economy picks up and more workers re-establish themselves, either with new nine-to-five jobs orsetting up a home office.

“Short-term, to somebody who’s recently been let go from an employer, who wants the comfort and community and socializing that an office gives, the value pretty clear,” Van Buren said, “but I think after a few months that value proposition needs to change.”

Originally published Jan. 8, 2010, on BringMeTheNews.com.

Michigan’s attorney general announced a lawsuit Monday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to cut off a Chicago-area canal system that could allow invasive Asian carp to enter the Great Lakes.

Meanwhile, a group of Minnesota legislators says officials here must take “immediate action” to prevent the voracious invaders from devastating this state’s waterways and native fish populations.

“We’ve got to get moving on this,” said Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul. “We know that these fish are a problem, and we know that they’re moving here.”

Asian carp were imported in the 1970s to help control plankton levels in aquaculture ponds. In the 1980s they escaped into open waters in southern states, and since then they’ve been migrating north up the Mississippi River. The invasive fish have disrupted ecosystems in their wake, swallowing up all the tiny nutrients that native mussels and fish larvae depend on to survive. Their appetites have marginalized other fish species in the Illinois and Missouri rivers, for example.

Rep. Hanson is one of about 20 legislators who signed a letter to the governor and attorney general this month asking them to consider joining Michigan in its legal actions to close the Chicago canal locks.

The canal system allows barges to move between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, and an electrical barrier installed in 2004 is meant to make sure Asian carp can’t do the same. However, wildlife officials were forced to poison one of the canals earlier this month after Asian carp DNA was detected past the barrier and just six miles upstream from Lake Michigan. Michigan officials now believe the canal system poses too great a risk to the Great Lakes and its fisheries.

In addition to exploring legal action, the legislators’ letter says Minnesota officials should aggressively enforce invasive species rules, urge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a second carp barrier, and play a lead role in collaborating with other Great Lakes states on the issue.

Hitting a wall?
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has done some this already. The department’s invasive species program participates in regional conferences and contributed $67,000 toward the construction of the Chicago canal barrier. It co-funded a 2004 study (PDF) with Wisconsin on the feasibility of a carp barrier in the Upper Mississippi River, and then helped lobby federal officials to authorize and fund such a project.

But the state’s efforts to install an Asian carp barrier in the Mississippi River have largely stalled in recent years, even as the fish have been reported as far north as Lake Pepin.

The DNR blames the lack of progress on a federal funding shortfall, but Rep. Hansen said that doesn’t explain why the department hasn’t spent $500,000 allocated to it in the 2008 bonding bill for design and pre-design of an Asian carp barrier.

“That passed in the spring of ’08, and it’s now December of ’09,” said Hansen, who suspects some DNR officials believe it’s inevitable the carp will reach Minnesota’s waters, and that subsequently it’s not worth dedicating resources to try and stop them. Hansen said there will likely be a hearing early next year to ask why the bonding money isn’t being spent. “If they come back and say we haven’t spent a dollar, we just don’t think you can do it, was that a predetermined conclusion?”

Luke Skinner, supervisor for the DNR’s invasive species program, said there is debate about a barrier’s effectiveness, as well as its possible impact on native fish species. That conversation, however, is not the reason more progress hasn’t been made on a Mississippi River carp barrier, he said.

The state aggressively lobbied Congress for river barrier funding a few years ago in an effort that included a DVD video pitch from the governor and DNR commissioner. Congress bit, authorizing the Army Corps in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act to install a barrier on the river. The same Congress, however, failed to allocated funding for the project, and that’s been the reason for the delay ever since, Skinner said.

“These waters are Coast Guard navigable waters, which gives the Corps of Engineers the authority to manage those systems,” Skinner said. “Until they step up to the plate, there’s not much we can do because they have the authority to manage the river.”

Skinner said the DNR has discussed the bonding money with Army Corps officials, but the federal agency said it can’t begin a project until it has funding from Congress. (An Army Corps spokeswoman confirmed the DNR’s account about the project’s funding status, but an official was not available to comment further on the situation.)

“We look at this as a national issue as much as it is a Minnesota issue. We really need that partnership with the Corps of Engineers and others in order to make this happen,” said Skinner.

Sinking expectations
A 2007 DNR report (PDF) requested by the Legislature was pessimistic about the state’s chances for keeping Asian carp out of its waters.

“Preventing the introduction of Asian carp into Minnesota waters is a daunting challenge and unlikely to be successful over the long-term,” the report said. “Prevention efforts, however, have the potential to slow or delay the introduction of Asian carp.”

Asian carp have been caught in Minnesota waters only a handful of times. A bighead Asian carp was caught in the St. Croix River in 1996. At least two more bighead Asian carp have been pulled from Lake Pepin, including a 39-inch, 29-pound fish in 2007. A commercial fisherman caught an Asian grass carp in the St. Croix River in 2006. Currently, no known populations of Asian carp have established themselves within the state, although monitoring efforts are not comprehensive.

Scientists need time to assess the threat, and that’s why the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy also supports closing the Chicago canal locks, at least temporarily, said staff attorney Matt Norton. The inconvenience to the shipping industry could be easily reversed if researchers find the lock closure isn’t necessary for containing the fish. “It’s not reversible once Asian carp have invaded the Great Lakes,” Norton said.

“There’s a lot at stake, people’s way of life and quality of life, which depend on these ecosystems,” Norton said. “We should be asking and expecting the DNR to do what’s necessary and protective of our natural resources,” Norton said.

Rep. Hansen said he understands budgets are tight and the department has several priorities, even just within aquatic invasive species, where the DNR is also battling zebra mussels and Eurasian milfoil. The window of opportunity is closing, he said, and he worries if Minnesota doesn’t act quickly it may end wind up in the same position as officials in Chicago: reacting to an emergency rather than planning for a problem.

“If we had a chemical spill, we would have build barriers to try to contain it, to try to prevent contamination of our water,” Hansen said. “But with this, we’re saying its inevitable.”

Originally published Dec. 21, 2009, on BringMeTheNews.com.

A week ago, Minnesota Vikings safety Tyrell Johnson took a hit against the Arizona Cardinals so hard he said he couldn’t remember details of the injury.

On Sunday, Johnson was on the sidelines during the Viking’s play-off clinching win against the Cincinnati Bengals. Johnson was one of about 20 players league-wide who missed playing or practice time last week due to head or concussion injuries.

The number of players showing up on weekly injury reports for head or concussion injuries has spiked in recent weeks, from four the week of Nov. 15 to 19 last week.

The increase follows a series of high-profile concussions, and on top of growing awareness of the long-term risks associated with head injuries. Is it just the usual late-season wear and tear, or are teams being more proactive about reporting concussions?

Minnesota Vikings head physician Dr. Joel Boyd thinks it’s probably a little of both.

“I think what we’re seeing is, number one, everybody just responding to what’s out there,” Boyd said.

On Nov. 15, when the Philadelphia Eagles’ All-Pro running-back Brian Westbrook went down with his second concussion in three weeks, it sparked a heightened sensitivity toward concussion injuries, Boyd said. More recently, two high-profile quarterbacks, the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger and the Cardinals’ Kurt Warner, also suffered concussions.

On Dec. 2, the National Football League issued a strict clarification of its concussion policy, stating that any players with concussion-like symptoms must be removed from the game.

Boyd said the league’s statement basically outlines the protocols already used by every team he’s aware of, with the exception that it adds a requirement for an independent neurologist to sign-off on players’ recovery before they finally return to play.

Any player knocked unconscious must be removed from the game. A player hit hard but still conscious is examined on the sidelines and pulled from the game if they show concussion symptoms, with a more thorough exam following the game. Any player suspected of a concussion must pass a neuro-psych test before resuming physical activity. After passing that test, they need to complete exercises such as biking and weight lifting without experiencing more symptoms. And they need to prove they can remember plays and instructions in a classroom. All that before returning to the practice field.

“The policy itself doesn’t really change much of what we do,” Boyd said. “It’s just that the NFL wants to make sure that everybody understands we do have a policy.”

In the long run, Boyd doesn’t expect the policy will result in more players appearing on the injury list. The recent emphasis by the league is probably causing over-reporting because teams don’t want to be perceived as ignoring the issue, he speculated.

The league is simultaneously trying to get a message to players that it’s OK to report symptoms. The policy now explicitly encourages players “to be candid with team medical staffs and fully disclose any signs or symptoms that may be associated with a concussion.”

Former Viking Matt Birk said he understands the pressure players toward the bottom of a roster may feel to play through injuries, but also doesn’t understand why others would hide concussion symptoms.

“If your head hurts, how do you play football?” asked Birk. “I don’t know how you would go about playing with that.”

Former Vikings long snapper Mike Morris, currently a host on KFAN, a BringMeTheNews.com radio partner, said he thinks convincing players to report symptoms could be a challenge. In addition to concerns about losing a role on the team, players are also influenced by a culture that tells them to walk it off and get back on the field.

“There’s a part of it that’s very gladiator. It’s very spartan, to continue on and to play when you have been hit all the time,” Morris said. “Your teammates respect that, greatly, and it’s a mark of a player that is pretty special.”

That type of attitude isn’t unique to football, or to men’s sports, said Dr. Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, who teaches a class on the psychology of sports injuries at the University of Minnesota’s School of Kinesiology.

“It’s not a new culture, and in some ways I think it’s better than it used to be,” Wiese-Bjornstal said. “I think athletes are more aware and more careful with their bodies.”

The NFL’s decision to toughen its concussion policy is positive and overdue, she said. While professional players are adults who can make their own decisions, those decisions to play through injuries can be influential to young athletes, she said.

“At the end of the day, these are grown men who can decide for themselves, but I worry more about the trickle down effect to the young athletes who are more vulnerable and who aren’t cognitively mature enough to decide for themselves if they’re willing to take the long term risk,” she said.

“I think it takes a lot more courage to admit you have a concussion and sit out, and take the flak that goes with that, than it does to quote-unquote suck it up and play,” she said. “I think, frankly, the harder thing to do, and the more courageous thing to do, and the more manly thing to do, is to report it. I know guys would probably disagree with me.”

Morris said colliding with other players and “being fogged over, being dazed, being confused” was common during his playing time. If teams start pulling players aside after every collision, it wouldn’t be long before teams run out of players at certain positions, he speculated.

“I don’t know if they’re going to be forced to sit out or not, but if they do, I think you’re going to see a lot of key positions out all the time,” Morris said. He said running backs, wide receivers, linebackers and special teams players are most susceptible. While there’s a larger volume of hits near the line of scrimmage, the higher concussion risk is with players that build up speed before collisions, he said.

His prediction: A lot more players will be sitting out games they probably would not have in the past.

“I think that you’re definitely going to have to pay very close attention to … how it’s going to affect the depth of your team,” Morris said. “The league may have to have a look at allowing a larger number of guys to dress on Sundays.”

“I’m not so sure how this is going to work,” Morris said.

Originally published Dec. 14, 2009, on BringMeTheNews.com.

“This is the worst, without a question,” said Jay Kiedrowski, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

As the state’s chief financial officer under Gov. Rudy Perpich in the 1980s, Kiedrowski dealt hands-on with the fallout from another major recession.

What’s compounding the current shortfall is that it comes on the heels of already deep budget cuts and under a governor who refuses to raise revenues, he said.

The trends, if left unchecked, will have widespread consequences, from larger K-12 class sizes and higher college tuition rates to bumpier roads and fewer police officers.

“It’s a sad day for Minnnesota,” said Kiedrowski.

The Minnesota Management and Budget Office projected on Wednesday the state is on track for a $1.2 billion budget shortfall for the current two-year budget cycle, which ends June 30, 2011. Most of that, about 70 percent, is due to income tax revenues coming in at a slower pace than expected when the governor and Legislature set the budget last spring.

The $1.2 billion deficit equals about 4 percent of the state’s budget, Kiedrowski said. However, combined with $4.6 billion in spending cuts made by the governor and Legislature before the budget year began and the total cuts represent about 20 percent of the previous state budget.

In other words, for every five dollars the state had to spend last year, it now has just four dollars, he explained.

“I think the governor and the Legislature are going to have a near impossible task trying to find a way to cut that much money out of state government,” Kiedrowski said.

The previous budget cuts have left school districts borrowing money, police departments benching officers and public hospitals turning away patients. The $1.2 billion figure wouldn’t be so imposing “if it weren’t for the fact that the wiggle room is just gone,” said Dane Smith, president of Growth & Justice, a progressive think tank. “There’s no margin for error.”

Another factor that’s making the problem much worse, Kiedrowski said, is Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget “gimmicks” and his stubbornness on taxes.

The projected state budget deficit after 2011 has ballooned to at least $5.4 billion after inflation, much of which can be blamed on Pawlenty’s use of short-term fixes and funding shifts to balance the current budget, Kiedrowski said. He cited the governor’s school funding shift, in which $1.7 billion is being withheld from schools until the first day of the next budget year.

“It’s like a person deferring a mortgage payment until January so they can claim they have more money in December,” Kiedrowski said.

In the past, Republican governors including Al Quie, Perpich, and Arne Carlson, have all been willing to increase taxes when it was necessary to balance the budget.

“Gov. Pawlenty is the first Minnesota governor faced with these circumstances that has refused to increase taxes one dollar,” Kiedrowski said.

Pawlenty reiterated that position on Wednesday, saying in a statement following the forecast that state government needs to live within its means and hold the line on taxes.

Kiedrowski traces the state’s budget problems back to the late ’90s when, under Gov. Jesse Ventura, the Legislature permanently cut income taxes while simultaneously increasing spending with dollars rolling in during good economic times.

“As we got into the 2000s, it became clear we overdid it on both the tax and the spending sides,” Kiedrowski said. “We never truly had a balanced budget since.”

Peggy Ingison, who was the state’s budget director from 1996 to 2004, said she believes a “structural imbalance” emerged more recently, in the past couple of years.

“I think we’ve managed to balance our budget, but not necessarily for the long term,” said Ingison, who is now chief financial officer for Minneapolis Public Schools.

Ingison wasn’t prepared to call this the worst deficit forecast the state has ever faced. We’ve had billion-dollar deficits in the past, she said, but the previous budget cuts and the severe national recession make this scenario unique in the state’s history.

“I think we’ve got a long-term problem, and we might not fix it overnight,” she said, “but to the extent we keep pushing it out I think it pretty irresponsible.”

The deficit situation isn’t unique among other states. Minnesota is one of 36 states to report mid-year budget deficits this year, according to Elizabeth McNichol, senior fellow at the Center on Budget Policy Priorities. The average shortfall was 28 percent of a state’s budget. Minnesota was below that threshold going into Wednesday.

“All the states are hurting at the moment,” McNichol said.

Kiedrowski worries Minnesota’s future may look something like California, where revenue problems have ruined the state’s credit rating and stunted its once thriving economy.

“These are not good financial practices,” Kiedrowski said. “Businesses doing it this way would go out of business.”

Originally published Dec. 3, 2009, on BringMeTheNews.com.

A year ago this week, state finance officials broke the news to lawmakers about a projected $426 million budget deficit facing the state. The report set the table for a round of controversial budget cuts by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who used a once-obscure administrative power called unallotment to take back millions of dollars previously promised to state programs and local governments.

Today, the state’s budget office released this year’s edition of its fall budget forecast, and it showed another looming deficit, $1.2 billion for the current budget cycle. Early this afternoon, Pawlenty confirmed the worst fears of cities and counties, saying that he would prefer to work with the Legislature but that he may need to address the deficit problem this month by unalloting local government aid again.

“The worry is that it will be very large again,” said Steve Peterson, senior policy analyst for the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities.

Pawlenty cited the deficit projected in last year’s report as justification for $271 million in unallotment, an emergency budget-balancing power given to the governor under state law. Much of the spending reduction came from local government aid, which accounted for about 2.7 percent of that year’s state’s budget but made up nearly a quarter of the governor’s unallotment cuts.

“There wasn’t a lot of other places to take the money from, because by that point a lot of money was already out the door,” Peterson said. Another round of cuts by the governor in June trimmed the budget for local government aid by nearly $193 million. The rural cities coalition didn’t wait for governor to announce his plans this year before saying enough is enough.

“Repeated cuts to LGA have pushed our communities to the edge, and our ability to provide public safety, libraries, parks and other essential services at an affordable price to property taxpayers is suffering,” St. Peter Mayor Timothy Strand, president of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, told Forum Communications this week.

The cities’ concerns about unallotment are probably legitimate, said David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University’s School of Law.

Schultz predicts Pawlenty’s presidential aspirations will trump any desire to cooperate with the Legislature.

“It may be foolish, but he’ll do it,” Schultz said. “I can literally see him going around the country, puffing his chest up saying: I will do [the same thing] as president to that huge deficit that Obama created. I think the temptation is going to be too powerful.”

Pawlenty’s office did not return a phone call Tuesday, but in previous reports he hasn’t ruled out the use of unallotment. Pawlenty has used unallotment three times, and twice in the past year alone. Before he took office, the power had only been used two times in the state’s history.

Whether or not the governor could legally use unilateral budget cuts to solve the projected deficit is an open question.

“Under the statute you can’t just snap your fingers and unallot,” said attorney David Lillehaug, who has counseled clients about unallotment issues.

Lillehaug declined to speculate on whether the governor legally could use unallotment in these circumstances, but he said Pawlenty has plenty of other tools. They include waiting for the Legislature to convene early next year, or, if cash flow problems are imminent, calling a special session or exploring short-term borrowing to cover bills until the regular session.

Jay Kiedrowski, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs who was also the state’s finance commissioner under Gov. Rudy Perpich, said based on the governor’s previous interpretation of the unallotment statute, it’s likely that he can and will use it again if he can’t come to an agreement with the Legislature.

The courts, however, have yet to rule on whether Pawlenty’s interpretation of the rule is correct. The governor faces two lawsuits over his use of unallotment. One of them was filed by Legal Aid and the other is a class-action lawsuit in Ramsey County related to the state’s political contribution refund, which was cut in Pawlenty’s unallotment.

One question the courts will likely address is when, during the state’s two-year budget cycles, the governor is allowed to use the power, Kiedrowski said.

“If he were to use unallotment, we are just less than one quarter into the biennium, so he’d be unalloting a fairly substantial amount with three quarters of the biennium remaining,” Kiedrowski said. “There are observers who believe that unallotment was intended for use with far less of the biennium remaining, say the last six months of the biennium.”

Unalloting funding so early in a budget cycle raises other potential issues, Schultz said. For example, what happens if the economy improves or a new federal stimulus bill injects money into the state budget to the point that a surplus is available. “Do we now go back and say we ought to unallot the unallotement?”

Schultz suspects cities and counties will once again bear the brunt of the governor’s budget cuts. Pawlenty has proven himself to be unsympathetic to the concerns of local governments, Schultz said, and slashing local funds also forces the difficult and unpopular decisions about specific program and service cuts onto local officials.

Other constituencies that should be worried this month about having state funds taken back include school districts and health-care programs, Schultz said. A significant portion of the state’s budget goes to health programs, and the people served by them are generally fairly weak and powerless people who aren’t likely to stage a major objection, he said.

“I don’t think that he should be able to use it,” Schultz said. “But having said that, my suspicion is that he might be tempted to do it because, effectively, he’s running for president. What better way to look tough on taxes as you’re running for president than to say, I will do to the federal deficit what I did to the state deficit in Minnesota.”

Originally published Dec. 2, 2009, on BringMeTheNews.com.

Speaking at a private forum for Medtronic employees, the five GOP contenders described a state budget broken from unsustainable spending. And they spoke about an alarming migration trend they see in which businesses are fleeing the state due to taxes and regulation while indigents flock here to take advantage of overly generous social programs.

The solution, according to former State Auditor Pat Anderson: Be more like South Dakota, a state which has no personal or corporate income tax and fewer public services and amenities.

Minnesota should do “the exact same thing,” Anderson said. “I think the key is to have a good South Dakota-style business climate and then get out of the way.”

But state Rep. Marty Seifert said calling for the elimination of income taxes is “pandering” to voters and that state government needs to use certain subsidies in order to accomplish its goals.

The exchange was one of a couple barbs traded between Seifert and Anderson in what was otherwise a friendly and uncontentious forum, sponsored by Medtronic’s employee political action committee and moderated by Rick Kupchella of BringMeTheNews.com.

Other candidates who participated were state Rep. Tom Emmer, former state Rep. Bill Haas and businessman Phil Herwig.

The candidates generally agreed on a desire to cut taxes, eliminate regulations and shrink state government.

“In Minnesota we’re losing our competitive edge mainly because the tax and regulatory climate,” Seifert said. “My goal is to downsize, rightsize, economize government.”

On health care, the candidates blamed medical malpractice lawsuits and excessive regulation for driving up costs. They spoke about giving consumers more pricing transparency and the ability to buy policies for sale in other states. And they criticized the state’s mandatory coverage rules, which require insurers to cover certain treatments and procedures in every policy.

“If you want insurance that covers alcoholism, that would be your privilege, but it would also be your privilege to pay for the premium for it,” said Herwig.

On energy, the candidates enthusiastically endorsed nuclear power as the “cleanest” and most “cost-effective” form of energy. They said the state should do away with a 15-year-old ban on new nuclear power plant construction. Herwig touted the jobs such projects would bring, while Seifert questioned the reliability of the wind turbines being built his own district.

“If your mom or dad are hooked up to a heart or lung machine at the Mayo Clinic, do you want them plugged into a wind mill or into a nuclear plant?” Seifert said.

On education, the candidates stressed the importance of math and science skills and talked about making it easier for retired professionals to obtain part-time teaching licenses. Seifert accused “special interest groups,” specifically coaches, bus companies and teachers’ unions, of conspiring to shorten the school day. And Herwig proposed saving money by consolidating the state’s 380 school districts into 27 districts.

On the budget, the candidates said the state should stop borrowing money for big construction projects in every session. Seifert defended the use of bonding bills to pay for certain projects such as recovery following a flood or tornado. Haas said the state should base spending to what’s collected rather than using budget projections. Answers frequently led back to household metaphors.

“Everybody seems to want to charge up the credit card before you balance the check book,” said Emmer.

A recent Rasmussen poll shows the 2010 race for governor in Minnesota is still wide open. On the Republican side, Seifert led among declared candidates with just 11 percent of respondents saying they’d vote for him. Meanwhile, “not sure” received 26 percent of responses.

The Medtronic employee group will host a forum for DFL gubernatorial candidates next month.

Originally published Nov. 19, 2009, on BringMeTheNews.com.

Students Beyond Coal, part of a national Sierra Club campaign, will stage a rally today against the fuel, which is a major source of greenhouse gases and other pollution.

“We want to support what the University has done already” to reduce its coal use and energy consumption, said Siri Simons, a sophomore environmental studies student, “and we want to pressure them to keep moving in that direction.”

But is completely cutting coal from the equation realistic?

Someday maybe, but for now the University says it still relies on coal to help provide reliable and cost-effective energy on campus.

The University buys electricity from Xcel Energy, but it operates two steam plants on its Twin Cities campus for heating and cooling. The school managed to cut the carbon footprint of those steam plants by 25 percent between 1998 and 2008, and much of that decrease came from reducing the amount of coal going into the boilers.

Until the late 1990s, coal was the steam plants’ primary fuel source. Around 2000 the school updated both facilities. The St. Paul steam plant now runs almost exclusively on natural gas, with fuel oil as a backup for very cold days when gas is in short supply. And a boiler installed then in Minneapolis allowed that plant to start running on a blend of gas, coal and biofuels.

The steam plants’ emission permits allow it to generate up to 30 percent of its energy from coal or fuel oil. The rest comes from natural gas or biofuels such as oat hulls, which accounted for about 5 percent of the University’s energy production last year.

“We continue to look at ways to operate the plant as less of a polluter,” said Mike Berthelsen, associate vice president of facilities management for the Twin Cities campus.

However, as the school looks to further reduce coal usage, it’s limited by costs, technology and the supply of alternatives, Berthelsen said.

The price of natural gas tends to significantly fluctuate, and going exclusively to that fuel exposes the university to more budget risk. The school would buy more oat hulls, he said, but it can’t find enough sellers. And with its current boiler, the hulls can only be burned in a blend along with coal.

So if not now, when?

University President Robert Bruininks has signed a pledge to make the campus carbon-neutral, but the school hasn’t given itself a deadline for meeting the goal. Students Beyond Coal leaders say it’s time to start talking specifics with regard to phasing out coal burning on campus.

“Coal is America’s dirtiest form of energy,” said Adam Macon, a Sierra Club organizer who helped form the club. “It’s an archaic form of energy that we need to move beyond.”

Macon said they understand it won’t be an overnight fix and that solutions need to be worked through, but they want a commitment from the ‘U’ to move on as soon as possible. The group made their case to the school’s sustainability coordinator earlier this week, and it’s written a letter requesting a meeting with President Bruininks as well.

“I think it’s great that the students are leading the effort to bring the University to a position of leadership on clean energy,” said State Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, who will speak at today’s student event (2:30 p.m. at Northrup Mall). “Coal-burning plants are a 19th century technology. Their time has really passed. It just makes sense for a leader like the University to embrace that future.”

Originally published Nov. 13, 2009, on BringMeTheNews.com.