Officials oppose LGA cuts

• Rybak and Oberloh

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak joins Oberloh in a City Hall news conference.

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Worthington city leaders, long distressed about repeated cuts in local government aid by the state, got some company Monday morning.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, appearing alongside Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh, joined the call to oppose further slashing of LGA to Worthington and other Minnesota communities during a 30-minute news conference at City Hall. Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget proposal, which he presented last month, strips $125 million in LGA.

Rybak is a DFL candidate for governor, but did not mention his candidacy once. Instead, he and Oberloh both focused on calling for continued state support they believe is critical to the future of many Minnesota localities.

“There are some tremendously dedicated public servants trying to make difficult decisions,” Rybak said. “You’ve been making investments in infrastructure and public safety ... but the state has not had a long-term fiscal plan, and the well-managed cities and counties are expected to bail out poor management at the State Capitol.”

Worthington City Administrator Craig Clark said Monday that Pawlenty’s budget proposal would cut LGA to Worthington by $422,539 in 2011. A total of $474,474 would be slashed from the 2010 budget — which comes on top of $438,891 in LGA “already accommodated” for this year, Clark explained. Earlier, recent LGA cuts were $228,900 in December 2008 and $192,212 in 2009.

Minneapolis, meanwhile, is facing a $28.9 million cut in LGA for 2010 alone, which comes less than a year after a $21.3 million reduction last summer. That $50 million total represents a 54 percent reduction in state aid.

“Our local government aid cut (in 2010) would be the equivalent of laying off more than 300 police officers,” Rybak said.

“With our next round of cuts we would lose seven officers. … We have 15,” Oberloh added.

No matter how cities opt to slash budgets in the wake of a significant LGA cut, there will always be negative ramifications, Worthington Alderman Ron Wood said.

“If we make massive expenditure cuts, the layoffs we make will have a far greater impact in cost to the general citizenship than a small tax increase,” Wood stated.

Oberloh said city leaders have repeatedly challenged state officials to inspect Worthington’s budget to see if they could “find a place we’re spending frivolously.” The city has not been taken up on its invitation — and, at the same time, the state struggles to keep its finances in order, he continued.

Suburban, metro cities will continue to prosper while others will face greater hardships should LGA continue to be trimmed, Oberloh and Rybak concurred.

“If the disparities continue to go on the backs of the cites that receive LGA, this will quickly become a state of have and have nots,” Oberloh said. “We don’t know how we’ll attract people to live in the Greater Minnesota area if we cannot continue to provide the same level of services.

“This isn’t just about potholes, snowplowing, police or fire protection,” Oberloh added. “In many cases this is about whether communities survive, whether they will be strong, good places to live in the future.”

Nobles County Administrator Mel Ruppert told Rybak that the county faces a $500,000 reduction in program aid. That makes mandatory emergency system improvements extremely difficult, he said.

“We’re in the process of working with the city in doing the participation plan with MnDOT (Department of Transportation) for the system,” Ruppert said. “We’ve started looking at the emergency systems. … Our concern is, how do we fund it, especially with the economic times we’re in.”

Rybak was scheduled to have a similar news conference Monday afternoon in Marshall with that city’s mayor, Bob Byrnes.

“LGA was created to provide property-tax equalization so that people can expect to receive similar levels of service in roads, public safety and libraries, no matter whether they live in a Greater Minnesota community that doesn’t have a large tax base or a more affluent suburban community,” Byrnes said in a press release. “When policy shifts away from these values, we are going to see a greater disparity of services — which, I’m afraid, will result in further shifts in where people choose to live and work.”

Wood said he believes the city of Worthington now has more money “flowing to the Capitol” than it is receiving from the state — something Clark vowed to research.

“They (Legislature) can’t even balance their own budget … and they have the audacity to say, ‘You can raise your levies only so much,” former Worthington mayor Robert J. Demuth said. “I think the Legislature and the governor have to have a different mindset and say, ‘What the heck’s going on?”

Tags: city hall, news, worthington, lga, cuts, officials, overloh, pawlenty, budget, rybak