GRANITE FALLS -- State-imposed levy limits will force rural counties to make painful cuts in services to everyone from young children to senior citizens, the Yellow Medicine County Board of Commissioners told Sen. Gary Kubly on Tuesday.
Commissioners asked Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls, and two Republican Party-endorsed candidates for Minnesota House seats in Districts 20A and 20B, if they would vote to override a governor's veto if it meant sparing further cuts to rural counties.
The senator and both candidates -- Mike Bredeck, R-Madison, District 20A, and Don Swoboda, R-Olivia, District 20B -- said they would put their counties' needs first and override a governor's veto in that case.
The county commissioners are in the process of preparing next year's budget under the constraints of a state-imposed levy limit of 3.9 percent over three years. Board chairman Louis Sherlin, Canby, said he's already warned a variety of groups, such as the fair board and its 4-H programs for youths, to expect cuts in county support.
The chairman said rural counties are looking at different cost-cutting options, all of them painful. He pointed out that Lincoln County closes its courthouse from noon to 1 p.m. to cut labor costs. He said other counties have looked at the possibility of placing highway workers on unemployment for a portion of the winter.
ADVERTISEMENT
"How do you do that?'' said Sherlin, pointing out that it would adversely affect the workers' families as well as the local economy.
Rising costs, especially for health insurance, will more than take up the amount of revenues a 3.9 percent levy increase would provide, Sherlin said. That leaves only the option of cutting, he said.
The worst may lie ahead, according to Kubly. "I'm not really very optimistic about escaping harm in the next round,'' he said.
Kubly said that Tom Hanson, state commissioner of finance, is projecting that the Legislature will face a $970 million to $980 million state budget deficit in its next session. Kubly noted that Gov. Tim Pawlenty's commissioner is not allowed to factor inflation into the projection.
Kubly said the true deficit for the next biennium could be as much as $2 billion.
He laid part of the blame on tax cuts the state made in 2000. That set the stage for chronic budget deficits, exactly as the commissioner of finance at the time had warned, he said.
Kubly called levy limits "terrible policy,'' but said the governor wanted a 2 percent limit placed over five years. The 3.9 percent levy limit is a compromise between the governor and Legislature, he said.
Federal cuts are imposing similar pain on rural counties, according to the commissioners.
ADVERTISEMENT
Commissioner Gary Johnson, Clarkfield, said the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission will likely be looking at closing some senior meal sites in 2009. The five counties in the development commission left the Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging and are joining the Land of the Dancing Sky Area Agency on Aging due to cutbacks to the nutrition program.
The five counties will each have to ante up an additional $8,000 to make up a $40,000 shortfall, according to information provided at the meeting.
Federal cuts are also forcing the Yellow Medicine County Family Services office to consider ways to reduce costs: Among the ideas being considered is ending the department's role in enforcing child support payments, said Peggy Heglund, its director. She said the enforcement effort brings $100,000 a month in child support payments. The department is losing $20,000 in federal funding for the enforcement.
The enforcement program is not mandated, and the department is looking for ways to make up for the budget constraints being placed on it by the state and federal governments, she explained.
