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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Paul Anderson

225 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317

For more information contact: House GOP Communications 651-296-5520

Posted: 2009-12-09 00:00:00
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NEWS COLUMN

LOCAL GOV'TS SPARED FROM IMMEDIATE CUTS

Notes From the Capitol

By State Rep. Paul Anderson

Minnesota cities and counties will be spared further cuts in Local Government Aid (LGA) later this month. That announcement came Dec. 8 from Gov. Pawlenty when he said that he will work with the Legislature to resolve the budget shortfall facing the state and not reduce the December payment. He cautioned, however, that if the Legislature is unable to pass “appropriate budget reductions,” future aid payments would likely be reduced.

Designed to help locations with lower tax capacities, LGA has become a significant part of local government budgets, especially for cities and towns. According to information from the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, 65 percent of the total LGA distribution goes to cities in greater Minnesota. On the other side of the ledger, 92 cities – including many suburbs in the metro area – and all Minnesota townships receive no LGA.

So, later this month, $437 million in LGA and County Program Aid will be distributed. Townships receive what’s called Market Value Homestead Credit, and those checks are received in October and December.

Aid to local governments, as a percentage of the state general fund, has been declining. In 2002 it made up 4.7 percent of the general fund, while in 2011, that percentage is forecast to drop to 2.7 percent. It is becoming increasingly difficult for our cities and counties to make up for this loss in aid from the state. It’s my hope that further reductions in LGA can be minimized and our local units of government can once again rely on this important source of revenue.

I met recently with a group of Europeans in this country visiting the four cities with their home city’s namesake. They were from Belgrade, Serbia, (formerly Yugoslavia) and spent several days in Belgrade, Minnesota. Other cities they were scheduled to visit were Belgrades in Montana, Nebraska, and Maine. One of the group members was a producer for their national television network, and he was making a documentary of their travels in this country. According to local officials, our Belgrade was named by railroad workers who came from that area in Europe as they worked here when the railroad came in.

The Midwest Dairy Expo was well attended in St. Cloud Dec. 8 and 9. The inclement weather may have kept some away, but it also meant that any harvesting left to be done had to wait for better days. Despite extremely low milk prices for the past year, there seemed to a feeling of guarded optimism among many of those in attendance. With futures prices hovering around the approximate break-even mark of $15 per hundredweight, the hope was that the worst of the price debacle is behind us and better days lie ahead.

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Rep. Anderson encourages constituents to contact his office with input regarding any state legislative issue. He can be reached on the web at www.house.mn/13A and via email at rep.paul.anderson@house.mn. To contact Anderson by phone, call (651) 296-4317. Mail can be sent to Rep. Paul Anderson, 239 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, Minnesota 55155.

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