For decades now, and maybe longer, Minnesota’s oft-ignored county officials have been as noisy as toddlers throwing temper tantrums when it came to unfunded mandates, those things the state requires counties to do without providing the money to cover costs. A popular example has been moving state prisoners into county jails. Counties pay at least $55 per prisoner per day, but the state provides as little as $9. The rub is obvious.

“Counties … have been used as the state’s ATM,” reads an excerpt from a press packet from the Association of Minnesota Counties.

And with that, the cry of the counties continued as the days tick down to the 2009 Minnesota legislative session.

But give county officials at least a little credit this go-around. Rather than just whining, leaders from Cook County in the northeast to Rock County in the southwest are touting what they call the Minnesota Redesign Project, a positively focused, back-to-basics look at how government bodies operate — and how they could better work together.

They could be more effective by focusing on outcomes and results rather than on expenditures and line items in budgets, counties contend. And they could better serve the people by being more transparent to the public and more flexible about how service demands are met.

Counties are roaring, but will anyone listen? Dismissing a branch of government responsible for routine, ho-hum things like managing land records and handling solid waste has always proven simple.

But with the state facing an overwhelming financial crisis — the $5.27 billion budget deficit can be expected to grow by another $30 million to $70 million, a state economist said — no ideas can be dismissed without consideration. Even ones that might sound to some like an upbeat spin on an old whine.

— Duluth News Tribune, Dec. 11