Cost shifts are hurting local budgets across Minnesota. What’s driving them?

By Brian Arola
MinnPost

Imagine your tax dollars divided up and placed in buckets.
City, county, school and federal taxes go into separate buckets, which change in size each year based on how much is owed. 
Sometimes the changes cancel each other out, said Cory Kampf, past president of the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association. “As each one shifts and moves, we may be paying the same amount,” he said. “It’s just which bucket you’re paying.” 
This year, Minnesota taxpayers have some bigger buckets to fill. Preliminary property tax levies for cities and counties rose by an average of more than 8% across the state.
No single factor is causing these upticks, but city and county groups have pointed to cost shifts as a key contributor. The premise is that local governments had to increase levies to account for added costs heaped on them by state or federal policies.
That cost shifts are happening isn’t in dispute. Where it gets complicated is figuring out which level of government is most responsible for it in cities or counties. 

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