City Aid Declines Under Most LGA Proposals

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...

Sharp Jump in Homeowner Property Taxes

Property taxes paid as a percent of income have declined for the typical Minnesota homeowner since 2007, according to the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence (MCFE), formerly the Minnesota Taxpayers Association. As noted in the previous article in this series,...

Homeowner Tax Rates Aren’t Necessarily Falling

Local elected officials have argued that property tax increases—including homestead tax increases—combined with declining real per capita local government revenue have fueled the need for an increase in state property tax aids and credits. But not so fast, says the...

Aids & Credits Down, Property Taxes Up

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...

City LGA: A Shrinking Slice of the Budget Pie

Local Government Aid (LGA) has been a mainstay of city finances since its inception in 1972. In fact, many small, low tax base communities receive more in LGA than they collect in property taxes. That being the case, LGA is a perennial hot topic at the state capitol....