Posted 3/21/01 Chisago County included in House bill regarding Met Council make up By T.W. Budig ECM capitol reporter Rep. Dan McElroy, R, Burnsville, has authored two bills dealing with the oversight and makeup of the Met Council. A goal of the legislation is better communication, McElroy told the House subcommittee on Metropolitan Council and Agencies last week. One bill, HF 444, would allow for the counties surrounding the seven-county metropolitan area to designate a nonvoting member to the Met Council. This would includes counties in Wisconsin as well as Chisago, Isanti, Sherburne, Wright, McLeod, LeSueur, Sibley, Rice and Goodhue counties. This practice of having nonvoting members in government bodies is not unusual, said McElroy. But itís not a preliminary step to expanding the seven-county metro area ñ the area under Met Council jurisdiction ñ to include other counties, he said. ìI donít have any suggestion that we do,î McElroy said of expansion. The Met Council has no formal position on the bill, according to a Met Council official. The second bill, HF 981, that McElroy proposes would establish a 14-member legislative commission to oversee the Met Councilís budgets, programs and capital improvement efforts. The Legislature is currently probably more distant from the council than the lawmakers whom created the council originally envisioned, said McElroy. By creating the legislative commission, it would be a means of insuring a better alignment between the visions the council and Legislature hold for the future, said McElroy. A commission also would be a way to answer the criticism of the council that the body practices taxation without representation. Met council member are not elected but appointed by the governor. McElroy said heís always believed that taxation is something the Legislature along rightly handles. But one criticism House committee members made of the McElroyís proposed commission is that could be just another layer of government or even in essence create another Met Council. But McElroy said the commission would not hold public hearings nor prepare budgets. ìIt would review them (budgets), not prepare them,î said McElroy. ©Post Review