Spend money to get money? A newer Minnesota city considers hiring a lobbyist.

Credit River shed its township designation in 2021, incorporating as a brand-new Minnesota city sandwiched between Lakeville to the east and Prior Lake to the northwest.

Now, the city’s sewer and water lines are steadily aging, interim City Administrator Eric Johnson said. Nitrate pollution is impacting one development. And fixing those issues could add up.

So elected officials are mulling an idea some of their larger, neighboring cities have embraced for years: hiring a lobbyist — a professional presence at the Capitol who could help Credit River snag state money for its local infrastructure needs.

“We’re basically a new city, still, without a whole lot of services,” Council Member Jay Saterbak said at a recent meeting, before adding: “I think we should really consider finding other funding that’s outside that’s available to us. If it’s available to everybody, why shouldn’t we also take a look at that?”

Nearly 150 Minnesota local governments employed staff or hired contract lobbyists in 2023, according to a state auditor’s report. Those governments spent $7.6 million to pay lobbyists to promote their individual legislative wishes, while a collective $5 million funded their membership in lobbying groups, such as the League of Minnesota Cities.

In Credit River, however, not everyone was on board with the idea of paying for representation in St. Paul.

“A racket,” Council Member Abe Zanto said with a smile, skeptical of the idea of “spending all this money to go and get money.”

A contract lobbyist for a city like Credit River can cost $40,000 annually, Johnson later told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

In the end, city leaders neither embraced nor rejected the idea. Johnson said they’ll sit on hiring a lobbyist for now, as uncertainty clouds the legislative session and other priorities rank higher on the south metro community’s to-do list.

Still, the question gripping Credit River, home to some 5,500 people, is one that similar municipalities could face in the future.

Inflation keeps increasing the cost of projects. Meanwhile, local governments are contending with expensive infrastructure overhauls, like the push to purge PFAS from water. That makes hiring a lobbyist who can secure state money for community projects an increasingly attractive investment.

“All needs are local,” Johnson said.

In Shakopee, a handful of lobbyists tried to score bonding funds for city infrastructure needs last session, records show. But the Scott County city, and so many others, didn’t get that cash infusion after legislators failed to pass a bonding bill.

Such unpredictability is an expected part of the job, and local lobbyists must liaise with politicians from both parties to succeed. That’s never been a problem for Perry Mulcrone, Scott County’s staff lobbyist.

“I grew up in a household where my mom was a tireless boots-on-the-ground Republican, and my dad was a very influential DFLer,” said Mulcrone, who also manages the county’s fiber network and broadband assets. “I think that helped me understand different perspectives and the relationships in this role.”

The county has condensed its legislative priorities for this session down to ten bullet points. Topping the list? Drumming up support for legislation to boost the number of beds for mental health patients in Scott County. Officials also hope to secure millions for a hazardous waste disposal facility and trail project, among other wishes.

Mulcrone said one reason municipalities lean on lobbyists is to prevent residents from footing the entire bill for expensive projects through local property taxes. Policies that state legislators craft, he added, acutely impact local communities: “So why not be involved in the conversation?”

Some cities and counties opt to hire their own lobbyists to serve as a set of “eyes and ears” at the Capitol for local projects, while also joining groups that advocate for municipalities’ needs en masse, said Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities.

Peterson said the coalition typically focuses on securing state grants that support local issues — think housing, transportation and child care — for its roughly 110 member cities, all of them beyond the Twin Cities metro.

In 2024, the coalition helped score $24 million from the Legislature to aid EMS providers across rural Minnesota. And it worked with other groups to nail down ten times that amount for lead pipe removal the year before.

Then there’s the League of Minnesota Cities, which lobbies for 841 of the state’s 856 cities, Intergovernmental Relations Director Anne Finn said. Credit River is one of the group’s newest members.

“We offer a pretty wide array of services and products to cities,” said Finn, including training for newly elected officials, copies of model ordinances and HR consulting for cities that lack human resources departments.

Peterson said smaller cities might opt to hire a lobbyist to keep up with their neighbors.

“As cities see more and more other cities doing it, there’s sort of this, ‘Why shouldn’t we join in?’ effect, or ‘We’ll be left behind if we don’t’ effect,” Peterson said.

Johnson, Credit River’s interim city administrator, said that fear-of-missing-out mentality isn’t driving conversations about hiring a lobbyist.

Rather, the benefit boils down to something more concrete: addressing pressing local needs with the help of someone who can navigate the twists and sometimes frantic negotiations in the legislative process.

“There’s everything in between,” he said of that process. “And somebody better know how to get through everything in between.”