About In$ight St. Paul

About in$ight St. Paul

In$ight St. Paul is nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group made up largely of St. Paul residents and businesses concerned about the need for stronger financial management of St. Paul. St. Paul is facing significant financial challenges that cannot be ignored.

St. Paul is facing significant financial challenges that cannot be ignored. Our goal is to unpack, understand and explain the serious tax, spending and debt problems confronting St. Paul and work with policymakers and the community to develop sound solutions that ensure a strong financial future for the City.

What We Believe

We love St. Paul and believe that transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of good government. The City’s finances are intertwined with those of regional, state and federal governments in often-complicated relationships. We believe the City needs an outside group such as ours to independently research, analyze and monitor St. Paul’s fiscal affairs.

Why it Matters

To succeed, St. Paul needs to maintain a robust infrastructure, offer good services at a reasonable cost to taxpayers and provide a sound fiscal environment that will sustain and attract investment. St. Paul is Minnesota’s capital City; hence the entire state has an interest in seeing the city do well.

Our Members

Our group is made up of more than 90 members with widely varying backgrounds. We issued our first report and supporting documents on Oct. 29, 2024. The report was based on extensive research by Greg Blees, who worked for 32 years in various budget-related positions for the City of St. Paul including 9 years as the budget director for Mayor George Latimer and 14 years as the fiscal policy director for the St. Paul City Council. Our co-chairs are Jane Prince, a Council member from 2015 to 2023, and Gary Todd, chair of Save Our Streets (SOS) and a retired project manager for Thomson Reuters. In addition to Blees, Prince and Todd, our steering committee includes:

Dave Beal, former business editor and columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Joe Errigo, CEO from 1971 to 2006 of St. Paul-based Common Bond Communities, which provides affordable housing and related services for nearly 14,000 people in four states.
Julian Loscalzo, owner/operator of Ballpark Tours Inc. and public affairs consultant.
John Mannillo, retired commercial real estate broker/developer and the leader of St. Paul’s Friday Lunch Discussion Group.
Gerry McInerney, business owner and 35-year homeowner in St. Paul, former legislative aide to Ward 1 City Council member.
Carl Michaud, retired from Hennepin County, where he was the assistant county administrator for public works.
Donna Swanson, public affairs consultant.

Working Groups

To date, In$ight St. Paul has established the following working groups to address the issues of greatest concern:

Capital Improvements budget (chair, Carl Michaud).
Communications (co-chairs, Donna Swanson and Dave Beal)
Legal (chair, Jane Prince).
Legislative (co-chairs, Allyson Hartle and Julian Loscalzo).
Payments in lieu of taxes (chair, Mary Morris).
Tax increment financing (chair, John Mannillo).