Proposals Leave Local Government Aid from State to Maple Grove at Zero

Years without getting local government aid will stay that way for Maple Grove. 

Other Minnesota cities could see payments balloon under a new proposal that would inject tens of millions of dollars into the system and change the way those millions are distributed.

A bill by state Rep. Ben Lien of Moorhead (DFL-4A) would add $80 million to the $426 million that the state is scheduled to spend on local government aid (LGA) in 2014.

It would also create a new formula that adjusts aid based on its “aid gap”—a product of how the formula determines “unmet need,” according to the House Research bill summary. For so-called “large cities” that have more than 10,000 people, including Maple Grove, the formula considers three factors in determining need per capita:

• Jobs per capita
• Percent of housing built before 1940
• Percent of housing built between 1940 and 1970

LGA is intended to help cities with greater needs than they can reasonably expect to fund through property taxes. In most cases, the money goes into a city's general fund, to be spent however city officials deem necessary.

If Lien's law passes, no city would receive less aid in 2014 than it did in 2013. But aid could decrease in later years if it was bigger than what the formula determined to be unmet need. Decreases could not be more than 5 percent of the city’s levy the previous year.

Maple Grove would be among 85 Minnesota cities (out of 854 total) that would not receive LGA in the initial year—down from 107 that do not receive it now, according to the Red Wing Republican Eagle.

The bill has united cities in the Twin Cities metro and rural Minnesota because they feel it would make LGA more predictable from year to year.

An earlier proposal from Gov. Mark Dayton also recommended setting aside $80 million more for LGA, but it didn’t tweak the formula so radically. (Click on PDF thumbnail to see how Dayton's plan would affect individual cities.)

Maple Grove wouldn’t receive anything under Dayton’s plan or Lien’s bill.

The state last certified Maple Grove to receive LGA funds in 2003—but then aid reductions zeroed out the allotted $179,785, according to House Research’s Local Government Aid Lookup tool.

Use the search tools above to compare how cities would fare if the bill passes. The bottom box allows a simple search by name.

The top widget allows comparison by “city cluster”—groups of cities that have similar characteristics. The House Research Department only started using new city clusters March 6, 2013. Maple Grove is in the “Large Cities” group. Click here to read more about city clusters.