Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOGAN — Residents of Logan and St. George probably don't think of themselves as living in big cities. But under current federal law, they qualify as metropolitan statistical areas just like the larger Wasatch Front cities of Salt Lake, Ogden and Provo.
Under a new proposal from the federal Office of Management and Budget, those two cities and 142 others like them could be downgraded from metros to "micropolitan" areas. Technically, the designation is purely for statistical purposes, but practically, as the Associated Press reports, the change could cost those cities federal dollars reserved for the country's most populated areas.
Currently, metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs, have a core city with at least 50,000 residents. That comfortably qualifies St. George, with its population estimated around 84,500, and just barely includes Logan and its population of 51,000. The Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Standards Review Committee recommended in January that the government change those standards so that MSAs have at least 100,000 residents.
Smaller cities would then be designated as micropolitan statistical areas.
The committee points out that the MSA designation was developed in 1950 when the country's population was much smaller. Since then, the number of qualifying cities has grown considerably.
But many of the 144 targeted cities fear the reduced designation would leave them competing for resources with countless rural communities across the country. The mircropolitan designation currently applies to communities with populations between 10,000 and 50,000.
Logan Mayor Holly Daines said in an email that the city is "very concerned about this potential change" and has reached out to two members of Utah's congressional delegation — Rep. Blake Moore and Sen. Mitt Romney — for help.
"As I read the proposal, it appears we could lose about $500,000 annually which comes to Logan directly for Community Development Block Grant funding," Daines said. "We do a lot of good projects with that funding to help low- and moderate-income populations in our city."
In a statement provided to KSL.com, Moore said he is against the proposal, too.
"Cities like Logan rely on federal funding for high-priority initiatives, including suburban development projects and park improvements," Moore said. "These funds are essential to our small cities' growth, and this redesignation would make it more difficult for the First District's communities to obtain federal grant money. This proposal favors big cities and creates a deeper rural-urban divide throughout our nation, and I am hopeful that OMB will reconsider these changes."
A Romney spokesperson said his office has "been in touch with both mayors and is looking into it."
Other nearby cities that would lose metropolitan status under the proposal include Twin Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls, Idaho. It would even sideline capital cities like Santa Fe, New Mexico; Carson City, Nevada; and Bismarck, North Dakota.
The AP says some housing, transportation and Medicare reimbursement programs are tied to MSA designations. The government is currently soliciting public comment on the change.
