Cities, counties to do with less

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Local governments will do less this year than last year and even less in 2010, cities and counties said Tuesday after Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced he’s cutting the state aid program by $300 million over two years.

It’s up to elected officials to figure out what to cut, but local government leaders were emphatic that service cuts — not just accounting gimmicks or reserve fund drawdowns — are coming.

“There’s no doubt it hinders our ability to deliver core social services in the community,” Blue Earth County Human Services Director Bob Meyer said.

He referred to a $478,000 cut over two years to the children and community services grant, a reduction of about 50 percent.

The flexible grant supports a wide variety of social service programs, including those for children, seniors and people with mental health problems.

The cut was larger than expected, though it’s somewhat balanced by a smaller-than-expected reduction to county aid.

Blue Earth County will lose about $361,000 in 2009 and $733,000 in 2010, about 20 percent less than officials there anticipated.

“Our challenge now is to understand the scope and depth of these actions and provide a recommendation to the County Board on what their options are in response to this,” County Administrator Dennis McCoy said. “I believe it will be a level-of-service discussion: What levels of service are sustainable in the community and necessary?”

Under Pawlenty’s plan — which may be modified as he consults with the Legislature — Mankato will lose $671,000 in 2009 and $1.55 million in 2010.

After cutting about $900,000 from tax-supported funds earlier this year, the city will be able to cope with the cuts, City Manager Pat Hentges said.

It might include service reductions, including longer response times for non-emergency calls.

But a conservative public policy group, the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, criticized Mankato’s threats to reduce public safety spending “scaremongering.”

The group issued a press release saying the city should look first to line items like $690,000 to build a hangar at the airport and $700,000 for youth baseball fields and grants for local nonprofits.

Hentges said the hangar was a state appropriation, and the youth baseball fields, planned to accompany a new elementary school, will be paid for over multiple years. The grants may be on the chopping block.

He framed the issue as a resource struggle between the “have” cities — wealthier suburbs like Minnetonka with city halls “that would rival the Roman Forum in its heyday” — and the “have-nots,” which will increasingly be cities like Mankato.

Local government aid was designed to level the playing field so that residents of Mankato can receive services like people in richer cities, and cuts to the program undermine that effort, Hentges said.