State Aid Decline Coincides with City Property Tax Increases

by | Jun 18, 2018

Some state elected officials regularly express angst about the growth in city property taxes, blaming local elected officials for this trend. However, this is a case of misplaced attribution. True, city property taxes have increased since 2000. However, the primary...

2018 Local Government Aid Funding in Perspective

by | Mar 13, 2018

Local Government Aid (LGA) has long been an important source of funding for city services and property tax relief. A 2018 LGA funding hike provided valuable new resources to cities, but not quite enough to keep pace with inflation and population growth from 2017 to...

City LGA Differences Among Various Plans

by | May 1, 2017

Governor Dayton’s city Local Government Aid (LGA) proposal increases the LGA appropriation in the upcoming two year budget, while the House freezes the appropriation and the Senate cuts it, as noted in the preceding North Star article. Knowledge of the appropriation...

City Aid Declines Under Most LGA Proposals

by | Apr 24, 2017

For the last four and a half decades, the city Local Government Aid (LGA) program has helped cities fund essential services and control property tax levels, but in real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) dollars per capita, city LGA is currently less than half of what it was...

Aids & Credits Down, Property Taxes Up

by | Mar 16, 2017

Homeowners’ property tax effort is feeble and property tax aids and credits provided by the state of Minnesota are adequate—if not robust—according to a recent article from the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence (MCFE), formerly the Minnesota Taxpayers...