MAP 150

The results of the MAP 150 survey are in

The Minnesota Anniversary Project, or MAP 150, is off a booming start thanks to Citizens League members!

The Citizen League believes, and always has, that citizens will act to promote the common good given the opportunity. MAP 150 is about citizen involvement in creating an agenda for Minnesota’s next 150 years that reflects this common good.

Looking ahead, we know that Minnesota will undergo some major demographic changes by 2020. These changes will transform Minnesota, and the co-creation of the common good by citizens and institutions is necessary to ensure public policy that reflects the priorities and values of all who call Minnesota home.

Minnesota State Demographer Tom Gillaspy, projects three main demographic changes that will impact Minnesota by the year 2020:

• Minnesota’s population will grow by more than 1 million people, but some rural areas will lose population.

• For the first time, elderly (65+) people will outnumber school-aged children.

• Eighty percent of Minnesota’s population growth after the year 2010 will come from communities of color, increasing the state’s nonwhite population by almost 40 percent.

How will these changes affect Minnesota, and how will they transform our policy priorities? MAP 150 put these questions and others to Citizens League members, Humphrey Institute fellows and members of the Minnesota Newspaper Association. In all, we received more than 225 responses-the great majority form Citizens League members-so thank you! Here’s what we found out.

First, we asked what trends will affect Minnesota in the coming years. While we received a wide range of thoughtful responses, a few themes emerged.

• Increasing disparities: Respondents increasingly see a growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. They attribute the growing gap to an increased concentration on what is best for the individual instead of the larger community, and to growing selfishness. Many respondents see this income gap as most prevalent in communities of color, which exacerbates racism.
• Immigration: The growing numbers of immigrants settling in Minnesotans have an impact on many areas of life and culture. Specifically, respondents say schools face huge challenges, particularly with regard to language.
• Transportation/traffic: Respondents say traffic congestion is quickly becoming a huge problem, particularly in the urban area. The respondents like light rail and want to see it expanded throughout the metro area and northern corridor.
• Labor market shortages: As baby boomers retire, respondents fear there won’t be enough workers, or workers with the right skills to fill all the available jobs. There is a growing concern that this will lead to a substantial decrease in the competitiveness of Minnesota’s economy.
• Healthcare: With healthcare costs skyrocketing, respondents expressed concern about the ability of families and businesses to pay for healthcare coverage, and for baby boomers to effectively plan for retirement. Demand for healthcare services will also increase dramatically as baby boomers age, likely causing a heightened reliance on foreign healthcare workers like doctors and nurses.
• Education: As the number of school-aged children declines, many school districts will experience shrinking resources. Increasingly diverse student population-the result of immigration-also present schools with growing challenges in providing a uniform educational experience, particularly given the language barriers.
• Social contract/civic culture/engagement deteriorating: Respondents see the social contract and the civic culture of Minnesota deteriorating. Voter turn-out is low and members feel decreasing support for community and collective causes. Many respondents feel that while this trend is increasingly prevalent in all age groups, it is particularly striking in younger generations, and that overall there is a lack of collective understanding of what it means to be a “citizen.”
• Environment/sprawl: As the population increases and urbanites seek “unspoiled” northern spaces, huge changes are affecting Minnesota’s landscape. Sprawl, coupled with rising consumption, has lead to greater pollution and diminished air and water quality.

Respondents were then asked to prioritize their top five concerns from a given list. Respondents ranked education, health care, environment, family economic security, energy and dependence on petroleum, and retirement systems are on among their most pressing concerns.

Interestingly, across subcategories, like age and sex, priorities differed little if at all. In fact, the only discernable differences in priorities were in geography. As the Table 2 shows, respondents in Greater Minnesota say healthcare and education are even more pressing issues than their urban counterparts, and that the environment is less important. Even given these variations, the overall top eight issues did not change. It is clear that Minnesotans have a clear set of priorities for their future.

Perhaps the most important thing to recognize, however, is that these issues and priorities don’t exist in silos. Respondents provided extremely thoughtful commentary about how they don’t have any one single priority, but rather, they care about some specific trends that connect to a whole host of issues. Their top priority may just be a piece or a foundation for a host of issues. For instance, many who listed education as their top priority drew connections to local and state economic competitiveness and family economic security, specifically the ability to support one’s family. They made it very clear that these issues are inextricably linked. Indeed, while a listing of priorities may be a good starting point, respondents voiced and demonstrated the importance of approaching issues and policy from a holistic perspective.

Thank you to all who provided such thoughtful answers. MAP 150 is already using your responses to set the stage for a statewide conversation about our future. Stay tuned to the MAP 150 page on the Citizens League website for more specific information.

The insightful and constructive comments we received make it clear that Citizens League members have been thinking a lot about Minnesota’s future and they have a lot of ideas about how to create a state that we can all love and be proud of. MAP 150 is excited to tap into this perspective and enthusiasm to strengthen Minnesota’s future. Together we can create an agenda and that will set the stage for Minnesota’s next successful 150 years.

In their own words

MAP 150 asked Citizens League members and others about their top issues and priorities for Minnesota’s future. Here are some of their comments:

Education

“The more variations in students, the more students have unexpected needs, the more the system needs to adjust. The more the system needs to adjust, the more painful and expensive education becomes. Yet we have no choice but to figure it all out. There are never easy answers. The questions only become more challenging and we have no choice but to answer them”

Health care

“As a Gen XYer, it is clear that the current healthcare system cannot continue to support the population and will become much worse with the post-retirement demands of the baby boomers. I do not believe that the boomer generation has the will to proactively implement the necessary changes during the time they serve in the leadership of this state’s institutions and deeply fear the impact on my generation when the situation is pushed to a crisis.”

Family economic security

“Stark economic disparity only and always leads to social/political instability. And it’s bad for kids. We as a society seem to care less for poor people and those who need help than we used to.”

Energy and dependence on petroleum

“Energy will largely be generated and routed through the depopulating areas of the state to feed the energy sucking flat screens of the urban areas. (My plasma set upped my energy bill noticeably to my surprise.) Hummers, trucks and SUVs absolutely suck up gas and spew it out. Ignoring the foreign policy effects, ignoring health effects, and ignoring environmental impacts, one can’t help but wonder how our kids will view our wanton consumption…”

Impacts of physical growth

“Minnesotans will have to rethink how we use land…We can no longer be the 2.5 acre white picket fence state with the grocery store a five-mile drive away.”

Willingness to pay taxes

“Money isn’t everything, but it’s damn important. If we succumb to the siren calls of “no new taxes” we will sink into mediocrity and become just like all the other mediocre states. The best people will move out to places like Oregon and Washington, where the political leaders can see with a long-term vision of what’s best for the future.”

This article is by Erin Sapp and originally appeared in the Minnesota Journal, May 2006 Edition.