Twin Falls achieves metropolitan area status

Twin Falls is the nation’s and Idaho’s newest federal Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Twin Falls MSA, consisting of Twin Falls and Jerome counties, was the only new MSA added to the list of 390 MSAs in the United States (with seven in Puerto Rico) in the updates issued Aug. 15 by the federal Office of Management and Budget.

Twin Falls only learned of its new metropolitan designation Dec. 12 from the Idaho Department of Labor, Mayor Shawn Barigar said.

Until now, Twin Falls has been considered a micropolitan area – an urban cluster with less than 50,000 residents – and was the only sizeable Idaho city not within an MSA. Idaho now has six federal MSAs: Boise, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston and Twin Falls.

A Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of one or more counties that contain a city of at least 50,000 residents or have an urbanized area of at least 100,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Twin Falls and Jerome counties combined have 104,000 residents and the Twin Falls city population in 2016 was 48,260, according to census estimates.

As an MSA, Twin Falls will eventually be included on city listings that only gauge Metropolitan Statistical Areas, such as the monthly construction jobs reports issued by the Associated General Contractors of America.

Also, Twin Falls now may make more “best of” lists as Boise does in listings based on MSAs, Barigar said.

Becoming a metro area brings with it federal transportation, stormwater and other requirements, some of which Twin Falls officials had been anticipating after the 2020 Census.

“From a city perspective, with that designation comes more responsibilities,” the mayor said. “We’re not clear what all of those are.”

Twin Falls City Manager Travis Rothweiler and city staff in the past few weeks have been seeking more information and making calls to Lewiston, which together with Clarkston, Nez Perce County and Asotin county became an MSA in 2003.

Rothweiler has since learned that the MSA designation does not go into effect until 2019 and most of the federal regulations don’t come into play until after the 2020 Census, likely not until 2022.

Reaching 50,000 residents triggers MSA status – an Office of Management and Budget designation – and also Urbanized Area designation and requirements to establish a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), both determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. The MSA designation was created for statistical purposes only and plays no role in establishing an MPO. The Treasure Valley’s MPO is the Community Planning Organization of Southwest Idaho, or COMPASS.

“It doesn’t trigger anything,” said Scott Frey, a Federal Highway Administration engineer in Boise. “We’re solely dependent on the work of the Census Bureau. (Twin Falls MSA designation by OMB) has no relevance to transportation programs or the establishment of a metropolitan planning organization.”

FHWA would set MPO requirements on the Twin Falls metro after the 2020 census, likely not put into force until 2022, Frey said.

Jan Roeser, an Idaho Department of Labor regional economist covering the Magic Valley, informed Twin Falls of the MSA designation after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics office in San Francisco notified the Idaho Department of Labor.

“I really think this was a long time coming,” Roeser said of the MSA designation for Twin Falls. “It means something different to every different federal agency and it can change from year to year through legislation.”

Employment statistics for the MSAs in Idaho are generated by the BLS, while Twin Falls labor data is derived from Idaho Labor Department internal modeling. That will remain the case for another year, Roeser said

“In our case, nothing is happening until 2019,” Roeser said. “You won’t see a Twin Falls data set (from BLS) until 2019.”

Rothweiler in the past two weeks has confirmed that the city can still stick to the 2022 target date for implementing federal regulations that Twin Falls had set for itself before the surprise notification of the MSA.

“It’s a good reminder we have to be vigilant to move forward,” he said. “We knew that this time was coming.”

The MSA – or, specifically, crossing the 50,000 population, line – will put Twin Falls into a different category for receiving various federal grants. Instead of having to compete for transportation or Community Development Block Grants, Twin Falls will become an entitled city for a set amount of CDBG grants and will get a transportation allotment as a metro area, Rothweiler said.

“We certainly know an amount of unfunded mandates will fall on the city,” he said. “What we are all trying to learn about are the potential impacts. What we’re being told right now is our urbanized area will not be set until after the next census (2020).”

MSAs and MPOs have different boundaries. The urbanized area set after the 2020 Census will determine  the MPO boundary. It is unknown at this time whether the city of Jerome, for instance, will be in the MPO, Rothweiler said.

“An MSA is somewhat inconsequential to an MPO,” said Shannon Grow, executive director of the Lewis Clark Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization.