For the past year, neighborhood residents from all over Minneapolis have been working to extend the funding for the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) for another 10 years. The tax increment financing (TIF) districts which support the funding for the NRP program are set to expire in mid-2009. Consequently, finding funding for the future has become critical. The effort to secure funds for the future is now focused on legislative action.
NRP is a 20-year program that was created in 1989 to revitalize the City through investment in neighborhoods with funds generated from downtown pre-1979 TIF districts. Residents, through plans adopted by 72 neighborhoods throughout the City, identified the priorities of their neighborhood and invested NRP funds in housing, parks, schools, libraries, commercial corridors, crime prevention, and problems and opportunities unique to each neighborhood. In the process, neighborhoods leveraged $1 billion in other public and private investments in the City, and NRP won accolades for its success, including an award as one of the 100 best programs in the world for “improving the living environment” by the second Habitat Conference of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement and the Dubai Municipality of the United Arab Emirates.
In the spring of 2007, residents from neighborhoods throughout the City came together as Neighbors4NRP to work to extend the NRP. One week before the legislative deadline for the introduction of this session’s bills, no proposed legislation had been offered by the City to extend NRP’s funding. As a result, neighborhood residents worked with legislators to draft legislation for action this session. Neighborhood residents testified at committee hearings, lobbied legislators, circulated petitions in support of the legislation, and started a ‘serene green’ t-shirt campaign to spread the word. The legislation, HF 2831 and SF 3643, would extend funding for NRP for 10 years at a funding level of $10 million per year. The proposed amount would complete the commitment included in the original legislation establishing NRP and the City Ordinance that implemented it in Minneapolis. The original expectation was $20 million per year for 20 years. Because of the tax changes enacted in 2001, the actual amount of revenue provided to neighborhoods will fall short by about $110 million. Although the legislation has passed out of policy committees in the Minnesota House and Senate, it still awaits decision on whether it will be included in the House tax bill. The source of the funding remains the critical issue.
In addition to legislation, neighborhood residents have successfully worked to adopt resolutions at precinct caucuses supporting the extension of NRP and organized a campaign to comment on the City’s proposed substitute for NRP – the Framework for the Future. The Framework proposes to re-fashion NRP as a city department, rather than as an independent multijurisdictional program governed by a joint powers board.
Residents are acting today to keep NRP working to make the neighborhoods of the City better places to live, work, learn and play. Truly empowering residents so that they can set the improvement priorities for their neighborhood is the approach that NRP has used — and it has worked. This unique, creative and effective investment program needs to continue into the future. For info visit www.Neighbors4NRP.com