\n| Total LGA+Levy<\/td>\n | $1,625,239,282<\/td>\n | $2,216,059,270<\/td>\n | $2,171,439,656<\/td>\n | $546,200,374<\/td>\n | 34%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \u00a0You might ask “what about the changes between 2002 and 2009?”\u00a0 It’d be a fair question; while I am focusing on the big picture here – the gross movement during the Pawlenty Administrion, the fact is that LGA started at $564 million in 2002, dropped to $464 million in 2003, dipped into the $430-million range through ’05, and held in the $480-millions until 2009, when the original amount ballooned back up to $526 million, before Governor Pawlenty’s unallotment shaved it back into teh $481 million range, roughly where it’d been throughout his second term.<\/p>\n But check out the second line – the total property tax levies from all cities.\u00a0 In every year of the Pawlenty Administration, they rose by at least $100 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, while total<\/em> LGA was off 15%, or about $83 million, for the period (and maybe $3 since the start of Pawlenty’s second term, even with<\/em> unallotment and the removal of the “Minnesota Value Homestead Credit” (in which the state stopped paying cities and counties back for a credit on taxes for high-value homes – which affected suburbs with high property values vastly <\/em>more than the Big Three cities of Minneaoplis, St. Paul and Duluth – of which more in a bit.<\/p>\nThose numbers are for all <\/em>cities.\u00a0\u00a0 And throughout Minnesota, hikes outstripped cuts by a factor of 7.5 to\u00a01 (683 milion to 85 million), even after <\/em>unallotment.<\/p>\nNow, let’s look at the Big Three – Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Duluth.<\/p>\n Minneapolis’ population grew by 2% during the Pawlenty years – while property tax levies rose 93% to cover a post-allotment drop of 28% in LGA payments; the city’s total revenue zoomed up 35% during the Pawlenty years.\u00a0 Hikes outstripped LGA cuts by almost 4 to 1.<\/p>\n \n\n\n| \u00a0<\/td>\n | 2002<\/td>\n | 2009<\/td>\n | 2009 with unallotment<\/td>\n | $ change<\/td>\n | % Change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Mpls LGA<\/td>\n | $111,567,143<\/td>\n | $88,786,411<\/td>\n | $80,249,971<\/td>\n | ($31,317,172)<\/td>\n | -28%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Mpls Levy<\/td>\n | $121,910,797<\/td>\n | $235,717,416<\/td>\n | $235,717,416<\/td>\n | $113,806,619<\/td>\n | 93%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Total LGA+Levy<\/td>\n | $233,477,940<\/td>\n | $324,503,827<\/td>\n | $315,967,387<\/td>\n | $82,489,447<\/td>\n | 35%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Mpls Population<\/td>\n | 382,446<\/td>\n | 390,131<\/td>\n | 390,131<\/td>\n | 7,685<\/td>\n | 2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \u00a0Saint Paul didn’t fare quite <\/em>as well; nearly doubling the property tax levy to its stagnant population \u00a0only<\/em> compensated the 22% drop in LGA with an overall quarter hike in LGA\/property tax revenue.\u00a0 Hikes outstripped cuts by almost 3 to 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n| \u00a0<\/td>\n | 2002<\/td>\n | 2009<\/td>\n | 2009 with unallotment<\/td>\n | $ change<\/td>\n | % Change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| StP LGA<\/td>\n | $73,554,056<\/td>\n | $62,600,018<\/td>\n | $57,569,445<\/td>\n | ($15,984,611)<\/td>\n | -22%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| StP Levy<\/td>\n | $45,857,683<\/td>\n | $89,254,277<\/td>\n | $89,254,277<\/td>\n | $43,396,594<\/td>\n | 95%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Total LGA+Levy<\/td>\n | $119,411,739<\/td>\n | $151,854,295<\/td>\n | $146,823,722<\/td>\n | $27,411,983<\/td>\n | 23%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| StP Population<\/td>\n | 287,260<\/td>\n | 288,055<\/td>\n | 288,055<\/td>\n | 795<\/td>\n | 0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \u00a0Duluth’s LGA, with unallotment, dropped by one percent over the Pawlenty Administration, and supplies more of the city’s budget than the property tax levies – which rose 70% – do.\u00a0 Note that while Local Government Aid was virtually unchanged even with <\/em>Pawlenty’s unallotment, and the loss of MVHC revnues had little effect given the city’s depressed housing values, property taxes went from about a third of the total LGA\/tax venue mix to a little less than half; the overall take rose by 15%, even though Duluth’s population shrank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n| \u00a0<\/td>\n | 2002<\/td>\n | 2009<\/td>\n | 2009 with unallotment<\/td>\n | $ change<\/td>\n | % Change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Duluth LGA<\/td>\n | $29,635,152<\/td>\n | $30,730,443<\/td>\n | $29,200,998<\/td>\n | ($434,154)<\/td>\n | -1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Duluth Levy<\/td>\n | $9,062,723<\/td>\n | $15,437,590<\/td>\n | $15,437,590<\/td>\n | $6,374,867<\/td>\n | 70%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Total LGA+Levy<\/td>\n | $38,697,875<\/td>\n | $46,168,033<\/td>\n | $44,638,588<\/td>\n | $5,940,713<\/td>\n | 15%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Duluth Population<\/td>\n | 86,125<\/td>\n | 85,220<\/td>\n | 85,220<\/td>\n | (905)<\/td>\n | -1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n So let’s compare the state’s Big Three cities with the rest of the state.<\/p>\n The population of Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Duluth grew by about a percent during the Pawlenty years, while all the rest of Minnesota’s cities grew by 8% – greater than the population of Saint Paul.\u00a0 The Big Three cities’ state of the state’s population shrank by 1.2%, to just under 18% – less than one in five Minnesotans:<\/p>\n \n\n\n| Populat6ion<\/td>\n | 2002<\/td>\n | 2009<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | Gross change<\/td>\n | % Change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Big 3 Population<\/td>\n | 755,831<\/td>\n | 763,406<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | 7,575<\/td>\n | 1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Total city Pop<\/td>\n | 3,993,198<\/td>\n | 4,315,637<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | 322,439<\/td>\n | 8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Big 3 % of Pop<\/td>\n | 18.9%<\/td>\n | 17.7%<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \u00a0But how do the finances break out?<\/p>\n The big three, even with <\/em>a 22% post-unallotment cut, get a third of the state’s Local Government Aid – double the population’s proportion of the revenues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n| Big 3 LGA<\/td>\n | $214,756,351<\/td>\n | $182,116,872<\/td>\n | $167,020,414<\/td>\n | ($47,735,937)<\/td>\n | -22%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| All others LGA<\/td>\n | $350,234,601<\/td>\n | $344,024,675<\/td>\n | $314,501,519<\/td>\n | ($35,733,082)<\/td>\n | -10%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Big 3 % of LGA<\/td>\n | 38.0%<\/td>\n | 34.6%<\/td>\n | 34.7%<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Divided up by resident, this means that residents of the Big Three get, even after the unallotment cuts, two and a half times as much Local Government Aid per-capita than the rest of the state’s cities.<\/p>\n \n\n\n| \u00a0<\/td>\n | 2002<\/td>\n | 2009<\/td>\n | 2009 ost unallotment<\/td>\n | Change<\/td>\n | %change<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Big 3 per capita LGA<\/td>\n | $284.13<\/td>\n | $238.56<\/td>\n | $218.78<\/td>\n | ($65)<\/td>\n | -23%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| All others LGA per capita<\/td>\n | $10.19<\/td>\n | $96.85<\/td>\n | $88.54<\/td>\n | ($20)<\/td>\n | -18%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n And the Big Three’s property tax revenue hikes – 93%, \u00a0almost $164 million over the Pawlenty years – outstripped their net LGA cuts (almost $48 million) by 3.4 to 1.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\nWhat does this mean?<\/p>\n The Hikes Beat The Cuts<\/strong>: While the DFL caterwauls endlessly about the damage the cuts in LGA did, the hikes in property taxes statewide outstripped the LGA cuts by 7.5 to 1.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Without unallotment, that would have been closer to 16 to 1.\u00a0 <\/strong>Bear in mind that this is money that goes to government – not merely to maintain it but to grow it – as opposed to anything useful, like growing our private sector or putting your kids through college.<\/p>\nPay Your Own Way?\u00a0 <\/strong>While Local Government Aid was originally intended to subsidize smaller, poorer governments in outstate Minnesota, so that their schools and infrastructures could compete with those of the once-wealthy Twin Cities, that’s been totally stood on its head during the past generation.\u00a0 Minneaopolis, Saint Paul and Duluth get 2.5 times as much Local Government Aid per capita than the state’s smaller cities.<\/p>\nWhy?<\/p>\n Because the Big Three cities are basket cases after generations of unfettered DFL control.<\/p>\n The DFL would have you believe there’s no alternative.<\/p>\n We’ll look into that on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are a little over five million Minnesotans.\u00a0 About 4.3 million of them live in “cities” of widely-varying sizes and government types, from plucky Montevideo up to metropolitan Minneapolis, from conservative Mound to neo-Wobbly Duluth. These cities have a few things in common.\u00a0 They levy property taxes to pay part of their municipal bills – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,144],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-11081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanting-points-memo","category-governor","tag-pawlenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11081"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22544,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11081\/revisions\/22544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} | | | | | | |
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<\/p>\n