MPR & Taxpayer Dough

(UPDATED WITH RESPONSE FROM MPR)
As certain as the cycle of the sun and stars is the question of how much money Minnesota Public Radio gets in state subsidies … and why.

The issue bobbed up again in the context of Joel Kramer’s to-be-announced on-line news site. Thanks to Julie Dinger in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library at the Capitol I can offer this
for those of you interested in how much Bill Kling receives/snookered the Capitol Hill turnips out of this past year:

Subd. 6.Public Broadcasting
(a) $6,650,000 is for grants to noncommercial
television stations to assist with the continued
conversion to a digital broadcast signal as
mandated by the federal government. This
appropriation must be used to assist each
station to complete its digital production
facilities and interconnect with other
Minnesota public television stations. In
order to qualify for these grants, a station
must meet the criteria established for grants
in Minnesota Statutes, section 129D.12,
subdivision 2.

(b) $2,000,000 is for grants to Minnesota
Public Radio to assist with conversion to a
digital broadcast signal.

(c) $2,461,000 the first year and $1,161,000
the second year are for matching grants for
public television.
(d) $200,000 the first year and $200,000
the second year are for public television
equipment grants. Equipment or matching
grant allocations shall be made after
considering the recommendations of the
Minnesota Public Television Association.
(e) $17,000 the first year and $17,000 the
second year are for grants to the Twin Cities
regional cable channel.
(f) $413,000 in fiscal year 2008 and $287,000
in fiscal year 2009 are for community service
grants to public educational radio stations.
(g) $400,000 in fiscal year 2008 and $100,000
in fiscal year 2009 are for equipment grants
to public educational radio stations.
(h) The grants in paragraphs (f) and (g)
must be allocated after considering the
recommendations of the Association of
Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations
under Minnesota Statutes, section 129D.14.

(i) $830,000 the first year and $190,000
the second year are for equipment grants to
Minnesota Public Radio, Inc.

(j) Any unencumbered balance remaining the
first year for grants to public television or
radio stations does not cancel and is available
for the second

As it is explained to me, the one-time $2 million is for upgrading MPR to all-digital transmission, which, as you can see is something that state has been assisting all public broadcasters in doing. The $830,000 figure is another one-time grant, this time for equipment, and the $190,000 figure is more or less MPR’s normal annual equipment subsidy.

(I’ve asked MPR for a breakdown of what exactly costs $2 million and how that is different from a one-time $830K for new equipment? When they respond, I’ll add it to this post.)

So, MPR’s take looks pretty fat this biennium. $3.02 million. Or, spun a different way, something like … 28 cents … for every man, woman and child in Minnesota … EVERY DAMNED YEAR!!!!! Well this year and next, I mean. But never mind! I am outraged, dammit! This is beyond Halliburton! Where’s the special prosecutor?

After that it drops back into single pennies.

[For those lacking an ear for facetiousness, I’m making a joke here. 28 cents … a year … come on. Would you even stop to pick that up if you saw it on the ground?]

Good lobbying help is one way that you keep your hand in the mix when the state starts doling out cash and I admit I missed the part where former Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson has now registered as an MPR lobbyist.

As I’ve been saying in the “comments” section, in an ideal world the State would consider funding credible start-up news ventures like those proposed by Joel Kramer and former City Pages editor, Steve Perry. Likewise, considering MPR’s extraordinary financial success you might think someone would be making a more effective argument to fund non-MPR public radio operations more and MPR less.

But the reality is that no matter how much its blood enemies and frequent consumers, like myself, kvetch and squall about what they don’t do and how precious an attitude they take toward provocative stories, the public at large regards MPR as … well worth the comparatively modest money they get out of our pockets.

I mean, a couple months ago I blew the equivalent of almost 15 years of my share of MPR subsidies on one copy of the National Review. And that thing burst into flames right in my hand.

MPR spokeswoman, Christina Schmitt, replied Thursday morning, saying:

Hi Brian,

Thank you for being patient. State funding to MPR is used for capital purposes only; to extend, improve and maintain service outside the Twin Cities area, where the population is less dense and capital fundraising is more difficult. For example, MPR used recently appropriated State funding to install new signals in Hinckley and infrastructure improvements in Duluth, St Peter, Rochester, Worthington, Bemidji and Brainerd. The most recent appropriation will be used entirely for capital projects in greater Minnesota, including the construction of a new station to serve the Roseau / Warroad area of the state.

In the 2007 legislative session, MPR received a one-time appropriation of $2 million for its digital conversion project. During the 2002-2003 biennium, the State of Minnesota provided a special appropriation of $7.8 million to public television for digital conversion. Though on a station-by-station basis, digital conversion for radio is less expensive than that for television, there are more public radio stations. We estimate the total cost of digital conversion for MPR stations alone will be about $6.9 million.

MPR provides important public services to Minnesota in addition to offering multiple channels of public radio service to almost all residents. MPR is the backbone to the State’s Emergency Alert System (EAS), providing the EAS signal to all other broadcasters, including radio, television and cable stations in Minnesota. MPR also serves as the backbone to the State’s AMBER Alert System, the child abduction warning system. In addition, MPR provides the Radio Talking Book to the blind and visually impaired across all of Minnesota on subcarriers of MPR stations, which is produced by Minnesota State Services for the Blind.