Local Government Aid (LGA) comprises 2.9 percent of the State of Minnesota’s budget, but has accounted for 16 percent of Governor Tim Pawlenty’s unallotments.
This past Tuesday, the governor issued budget recommendations that, if enacted, will cost Yellow Medicine County and the Cities of Granite Falls and Clarkfield nearly a million dollars in state aid payments.
“The Governor’s proposals hit rural cities and counties especially hard while having very little, if any, impact on many of the suburbs. It is tremendously unfair and may have dire consequences for small towns in rural Minnesota,” said Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski.
Particularly in greater Minnesota, LGA and County Program Aid (CPA) are state funds that cities and counties rely on in order to fund basic governmental services. County Commissioner Ryan Krosch summed up both the cities’ and county’s options for making up for the lost funds.
“These cuts will have to either be addressed through budget cuts, reserves or property taxes,” he said.
The state is facing a $1.2 billion budget deficit for the 2010 -2011 biennium and a 5.4 billion deficit for 2012-2013. City’s and counties were expecting to get LGA and CPA unallotments, but not too such a drastic extent.
Clarkfield, like all cities with less than 1,000 people, has – so far – managed to avoid cuts to any of its LGA funding. This time, however, Pawlenty’s proposed budget reduces Clarkfield’s LGA by $52,616 leaving the municipality with just over $300,000 remaining.
From 2008 to 2010 both Granite Falls and Yellow Medicine County had already each received just over $300,000 in aid reductions.
The governor’s 2010 proposed budget removes another $176,762 from Granite Falls’ expected LGA for 2010, leaving $455,103.
Yellow Medicine County stands to lose $369,468, leaving $138,999 in remaining CPA.
