ST. PAUL – Testimony in favor of House File 1377, and particularly for modifications the bill would make for local government aid and county program aid in Minnesota, was provided to the state House Property Tax Division on Wednesday, March 22.
Within House File 1377, authored by Rep. Dave Lislegard, D-Aurora, modifications would be made to the LGA distribution formula. It also would increase both the LGA and CPA appropriations by $100 million and annually index these appropriations.
Bradley Peterson, executive director of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, said the changes to the formula would benefit cities across the state.
“As always it’s a great day to talk about local government aid, which is our organization’s highest priority,” Peterson said. “I’m here to offer my full-throated support for the package that Representative Lislegard has put together when it comes to local government aid. The appropriation, the formula changes and the ongoing inflation factor will all provide certainty for cites across the state.”
Patricia Nauman, the executive director at Metro Cities, said LGA is vital for communities.
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“Local government aid is a very vital part of the state and local relationship and partnership and we appreciate the support that is reflected in that appropriation increase,” she said.
Additionally, an increase in appropriations to county program aid was deemed needed by Trista MatasCastillo, chair of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners.
“We really appreciate this,” she said. “The need is great and this specifically will buy down our levies across counties across the state and in Ramsey County to make sure that we continue with the housing affordability across our communities.”
LGA has been a top legislative priority for city officials in East Grand Forks. Since a large part of how LGA is calculated is based on a city's pre-1940s housing, the city loses LGA each year because the catastrophic 1997 flood took out more than half of the older homes in the community.
In a previous interview with the Herald, City Administrator David Murphy said he is hopeful modifications will be made this session.
The House Property Tax Division will meet again on Friday to have further discussion and mark up the bill.
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