FYI, LGA
Posted by Andy on October 2nd, 2006
LGA- Local Government Aid is wealth redistribution. Just so you know. It is when money from the entire state is preferably given to one city, instead of used for the greater good. Most cities foolishly used it to pay for public safety and other critical items. That way they could use their regular funds gathered from their own citizens for pet projects of the local government.
Since the state went through its budget deficit, the funds were cut. I’m not sorry about that. I think local areas should be forced to only pay for important items, and the best way to do that is to hold them accountable. Your property taxes have probably gone up.
That means 2 things.
1) Your local government did not plan wisely. LGA was a subsidy. It should have been used for greater goods, not necessities. Your LG should be able to operate on its own if it was fiscally sound and run efficiently. If your city had no choice but to raise taxes in order to go on, it is their fault. The state-wide tax payers should not be held responsible for the funding of your city. It is your city, you pay for it.
2) Your property values have gone up as well. Unless their were rate cuts, it was gonna happen. I have heard of some instances where property values skyrocketed, and there was suspicion of inflating the numbers for more tax revenue. Well, your county did that. They are the ones that control that.
It is high time that Minnesotans wake up and realize that there are a lot of people in various levels of Government that are trying to make people accountable to Government when it should be the other way around.
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October 2nd, 2006 at 8:27 am
I get this in Northeast Minneapolis quite often. The local DFL keep pimping the false message that it’s because of Pawlenty that police coverage was cut. No, the state chose to go back to the status quo and cut back the LGA. The city could have reduced their budget in a variety of ways. The city chose to reduce police coverage.
Not only that, I’m convinced the motivation was political. It was the one area they could cut where the general public would demand to have it back. The blame can be turned back to the state and the local politicians avoid making a tough choice. In the meantime, this gamesmanship has cost people their lives. It is disgusting that our city officials play with people’s life to score political points and protect administrative positions and other non-essential services while crime rates in some areas double.
What is it with politicians who feel it is more important to defend and protect their budget than it is to defend and protect their citizens? (Hey I might use that one, again).
I’m curious. What was our police coverage before LGA even existed?
November 6th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Do you understand how property tax is calculated? If so try to explain how “property values skyrocketed” brought in “more tax revenue”. Property value is used only to divide out the local levies, not to determine the amounts of the levies.