Finance − Statutory requirements: Distribution of funds

Funds will be granted only to regional park implementing agencies.

Any funds provided by or through the Met Council for the Regional Parks and Trails System will be granted only to regional park implementing agencies for projects consistent with Council-approved long-range plans, capital improvement programs, or state law. As previously noted in Chapter 2, and defined by Minn. Stat. 473.351, the regional park implementing agencies are:

• Anoka County
• City of Bloomington
• Carver County
• Dakota County
• Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board
• Ramsey County
• City of Saint Paul
• Scott County
• Three Rivers Park District
• Washington County

Finance – Statutory requirements: Regional and State Bond Funds

Bond funds are used for acquisition, development, redevelopment, and natural resource restoration within Regional Parks and Trails System units.

Capital projects proposed for funding must be consistent with a Council-approved long-range plan. Projects proposed by each regional park implementing agency are prioritized by that agency. Each regional park implementing agency has unique capital needs, which that agency can best determine.

Regional and State Bond Funds

State bonds have been appropriated to the Council since 1976 to help finance the Regional Parks and Trails System’s capital plans. Since 1994, the Council has financed the parks capital plans with a combination of state bonds and Council bonds; the Council matches every $3 of state bonds with $2 of Council funds. The premise for this mix of state and regional bonds is that people who live outside the seven-county metropolitan region visit and use the Regional Parks and Trails System and should therefore help finance its capital costs. Taxes collected statewide and within the region to pay off the bond debt are proportional to the share of visits to the park and trail system made by people living within the region, and those who live outside the region. Minn. Stat. 473.325 allows the Council to issue general obligation bonds for the acquisition and betterment of the Regional Parks and Trails System. No more than $40 million of bond debt can be outstanding at any point in time.

Finance – Statutory requirements: Operation and maintenance

The Council will distribute Operation and Maintenance appropriations to agencies.

Regional park implementing agencies raise funds to finance the costs to operate and maintain their portion of the Regional Parks System through the following sources:

• Fees collected from people using their parks. Examples include vehicle entrance fees, picnic shelter rentals, recreational equipment rentals, room rentals at visitor centers, and tuition for educational program
• Local property taxes
• Local Government Aid payments from the State of Minnesota

In 1985, legislation was enacted that allowed state appropriations from the general fund to be disbursed to regional park implementing agencies to supplement funding for operating and maintaining their portion of the Regional Parks System (Minnesota Statutes, section 473.351).

State appropriations for Regional Parks and Trails System operation and maintenance are distributed to regional park implementing agencies according to the following formula:

• 40% based on each agency’s proportion of total regional system visits
• 40% based on each agency’s proportion of total regional system operation and maintenance expenditures in the previous calendar year
• 20% based on each agency’s proportion of total regional system acreage, with park reserve resource management lands divided by four.

In 2000, legislation was enacted that directed a portion of state lottery proceeds into a “natural resources fund,” with the stipulation that a portion of the receipts deposited “may be spent only on metropolitan park and trail grants.” This funding source is commonly called “lottery in lieu of sales tax” revenue (Minnesota Statutes, section 297A.94(h)(3)). The Council disburses the appropriations from these two sources to the regional park implementing agencies based on the results of the formula contained in Minnesota Statutes, section 473.351).

Finance – Statutory requirements: Parks and Trails Legacy Funds

Parks and Trails Legacy Funds spending must conform to the statewide Parks and Trails Legacy Plan.

In November 2008, Minnesota citizens approved a constitutional amendment, commonly called the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. The amendment created a new 3/8ths cent sales tax to be collected from July 2009-June 2034. Revenue from the sales tax is placed into four dedicated accounts. One of those accounts is the Parks and Trails Fund, which may only be used to support parks and trails of regional or statewide significance. These funds must supplement, not substitute, traditional sources of funding. The Council is the fiscal agent responsible for administering appropriations from the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund to the regional park implementing agencies. The Council will ensure regional park implementing agencies spend the funds on projects that capture the strategic direction outlined in the Parks and Trails Legacy Plan.

The Parks and Trails Legacy Plan specifies four strategic directions:

• Connect people and the outdoors
  • Develop stewards of tomorrow through efforts to increase life-long participation in parks and trails
• Acquire land, create opportunities
  • Create new and expanded opportunities to serve current and future users
• Take care of what we have
  • Provide safe, high-quality experiences through regular re-investment in infrastructure and natural resource management
• Coordinate among partners
  • Enhance coordination among the network for public, private, and nonprofit park and trail partners

Legislation enacted in 2009 directs how money appropriated from the Parks and Trails Fund to the Met Council is distributed to the regional park implementing agencies under a formula codified in Minnesota Statute 85.53. The Council awards grants to the regional park implementing agencies based on that formula:

• 45% based on the operation and maintenance formula in Minnesota Statutes 473.351, provided in the section above
• 31.5% based on each agency’s proportion of the population of the region
• 13.5% based on each agency’s proportion of total non-local visits to the Regional Parks and Trails System

Since 2008, the Met Council has used a formula to determine how much of the state and regional bonds would be allocated to each regional park implementing agency. The formula balances two factors:

• The population within the jurisdiction of each park implementing agency compared to the region’s total population. (This factor is weighted 70%)
• The number of visits a regional park implementing agency hosted from people who live outside the agency’s jurisdiction (non-local visits — This factor is weighted 30%).

The population factor recognizes the need to provide funds for park capital improvements to serve every person in the region relatively equally. Using non-local visits as a factor recognizes that these regional parks serve a regional and statewide population. Therefore, a combination of both factors is accounted for in the Regional Parks Bonding formula.

In Thrive MSP 2040, the Met Council committed to strengthening equitable usage of regional parks and trails by all our region’s residents, such as across age, race, ethnicity, income, national origin, and ability. To honor this commitment, the Council created and implemented the Regional Parks and Trails System Equity Grant Program in 2019 with a pilot program using Council bonds, and then dedicated additional funding for the 2021 and 2024 grant cycles by using Parks Interest Earnings to fund programming and non-capital projects.

Using Council bonds and other available funding, such as Parks Interest Earnings, the Council will continue to fund and administer an equity grant program for projects explicitly aimed to strengthen equitable usage of the Regional Parks and Trails System. The Council will work in close collaboration with regional park implementing agencies, Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commissioners, Community Development Committee members, and other partners to refine criteria and measures for each cycle of awarding grants to regional park implementing agencies for projects aimed to strengthen equitable use.

In 2001, the Met Council established the Park Acquisition Opportunity Fund program to assist regional park implementing agencies in acquiring land for the Regional Parks and Trails System.

The Park Acquisition Opportunity Fund consists of two accounts:

• The Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund acquisition account, which is financed with 60% state appropriations from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. The remaining 40% of the account is financed with Council funds.
• The Parks and Trails Legacy Fund acquisition account, which is financed with 60% Parks and Trails Fund appropriations from the Land and Legacy Amendment. The remaining 40% is financed with Council bonds.

The Park Acquisition Opportunity Fund grant may finance up to 75% of the costs to acquire land and related costs, up to $2 million from the Parks and Trails Legacy and Council bonds account, and up to $3 million from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund and Council bonds account, for each state fiscal year (July 1 to June 30). The regional park implementing agency must finance at least 25% of the acquisition costs as a local match to the Park Acquisition Opportunity Fund grant.

The Met Council will continue to provide funding for the regional system through statutorily required match to state funds. The Council will also continue to allocate funds to the Equity Grant Program. In addition, the Council is committed to examining the current capital improvement program (CIP) strategy to explore opportunities and flexibility in providing additional funds to the regional system within the current $40 million bonding cap, as outlined in Minnesota Statute 473.325. The Council will also continue to pursue legislative initiatives that would provide increased flexibility in raising funds for the regional system, in addition to the authorization to issue bonds.

The Met Council will seek continued state funding for acquisition, development, rehabilitation, operations and maintenance, programming, and restoration and management of natural resources for all components in the Regional Parks and Trails System. In partnership with the 10 regional park implementing agencies and partners, the Council will pursue other sources of funding where appropriate for the benefit of the entire Regional Parks and Trails System. The system has been funded through a combination of state and local funding sources over the last 40 years.

The Council will work to assist agencies and provide information for funding opportunities through the Council’s Regional Solicitation and any other potential future Council grant program funding opportunities and/or federal funding opportunities.

The Council will work with the park implementing agencies to ensure that all sources of funding are used appropriately and in accordance with all legal requirements.

Regional Parks and Trails System funds should only be used to acquire or develop a corridor identified for future transit use in a Met Council-approved transit implementation plan when there is a guarantee that the trail facility will be operational for its useful design life, as negotiated by the transit provider and the regional park implementing agency. As defined by the Federal Highway Administration, the useful design life of a trail is 10 years or more. In cases where trail recreation is to be a permanent partner with transitways, within the corridor, Regional Parks System funds will be used only for that part of acquisition and development attributable to trail use.