Here’s a good article about one of the many issues swirling in the bowl of state politics waiting for a special session to be called, or not.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/politics/8883831.htm
City officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul are characterizing the decrease in state aid they are scheduled to receive in their upcoming budget years as a “glitch” in the State Legislature’s 2002 tax bill. Glitch my eye. With all due respect, they are giving the House Tax Committee too little credit for the bill they produced. The decrease in Local Government Aid to cities, including the 100% reduction in all Local Government Aid to Eden Prairie, was not a “glitch”. It was completely intentional. It was a political outcome in the Governor’s search for a balanced State government budget by forcing the necessity of increases in taxes down the line to county and city governments. The wisdom of that policy choice is up for debate, but the intentionality of it is not.
While Minneapolis and St. Paul city government may want a special session to fix this so-called glitch, I am beginning to favor the current stalemate, as far as the City of Eden Prairie’s direct financial interests are concerned. Our city has nothing at stake in legislation not enacted. I fear the only things that could happen to us in a special session are negative. For example, we are scheduled to have our Market Value Homestead Credit returned to us by the State in our 2005 budget. This is worth approximately $850,000 to us. If the legislature goes into special session I have a feeling that this money will be put at risk. Someone will grab it for some project somewhere else. That’s what can happen in a special session.
Glitch or no glitch, let’s call it a year at the legislature and commit to have a better session next year.
