TURN UP YOUR RADIO! RADIO!
Tim Walz will be back at the State Fair on Tuesday, when he will be interviewed by KSTP radio between 4:30-5 p.m. Those who already have made their sojourn to the fairgrounds (and Fairphobes) can tune in at AM 1500 or listen online.
FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS HIT LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PROPERTY TAXES
Over at the Mn Monitor, Leigh Pomeroy takes a look at how "last year's so-called Budget Reconciliation Act and the previous year's
cleverly titled Deficit Reduction Act shift mandated health care and
social services costs to county governments," in a close reading of a Mankato Free Press article.
From the Mankato Free Press:
MANKATO — Minnesota’s senators are working, their spokespeople say, to urge the federal government to reconsider a funding change that Blue Earth County officials say could trigger a 9.5 increase to next year’s property tax levy.
The precise funding implications of last year’s Budget Reconciliation Act aren’t yet clear, but County Administrator Dennis McCoy says that about three-fourths of the levy increase could be caused by state and federal cutbacks.
. . .Much of the projected federal shortfall comes as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Among other changes, it redefines what counties can spend on targeted case management, which provides free case workers to the mentally ill.
McCoy blames that act with reducing human services spending on preventative social work by about $664,000.
Nicollet County’s administrator, Robert Podhradsky, said his county could stand to lose $420,000, a large chunk of his $6 million social services budget. And dropping those services isn’t seen as a viable option in either county. [read more]
It's likely that the federal legislation will cause property taxes to rise, though the precise impact has yet to be known.
GOVERNMENT CENTER BLOG: THE POST-BULLETIN CENTER SAID "BUTTHEADS"!
Even Wonkette missed this fleeting headline from a Rochester Post-Bulletin (saved in screenshot). The P-B Government Center blogger's got the catch.
BUT SERIOUSLY: DM & E MEETING AUDIOS
The Government Center has audio of Friday's public meeting, as well as low-fi recordings of other Train Tracks. Government Center blogger Jeff Pieters also has a dream. GC is a great local journalist's blog--with top notch photo editing.
MORE ON JAFAR KARIM
MPR mentioned yesterday that the DM & E had hired former Thune aid Jafar Karim as its public relations director.
Karim, who was born and raised in Pierre, South Dakota, has quite an interesting political background, including serving as "national coalitions director" for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. Karim also hadserved as Director of the South Dakato's Governor's Office of Economic Development, beginning in early 2005.
We hope he has better luck receiving emails intended for him with this public relations campaign than he did during a political campaign in 2004. We hate it when this sort of thing happens.
The political culture of revolving positions as campaign operatives, congressional staffers, lobbyists, flacks, and in Thune's case--elected officials--can be quite dizzying.
It's going to be an interesting fall.
RE : FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS HIT LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PROPERTY TAXES
The impact to Minnesota was known to Congressman Gutknecht before the final vote.The Senate had passed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 but there were slight differences with the House version, so it had to go back to the House. Despite telling the voters in his eline, that he now understood how much of an impact this would be to Minnesota, he ended up not changing his vote. Click the link – or – here is the key points … note how Gutknecht restricted access.
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/capitol/2006/01/index.html
U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht of Rochester says he now better understands the "severe effects" a $40 billion deficit reduction bill would have on social services, especially as they relate to the mentally ill and children in need of child protection services.
"Yesterday, I met with county officials," Gutknecht writes in his online newsletter on Friday. "After several weeks of talking past each other, I think I now understand the essence of the problem with the language in the reconciliation bill. It appears that it has particularly severe effects on the way we deliver social services in Minnesota."
Designed to trim a bloated budget deficit, officials have warned that it could "cripple" services to people with mental illnesses, the elderly and disabled, and children in need of child protection services. Olmsted stands to lose anywhere from $2.6 million to $5.8 million in federal support.
Gutknecht's meeting with county officials last week did come with a condition. He would only meet with one representative from each county, and their staffs could not be present, says Amy Caucutt, a lobbyist for Olmsted County.
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | August 28, 2006 at 09:52 AM