Minnesota House bill proposes freezing city, county property taxes

They want to freeze it now that property taxes are going DOWN. They sure weren't interested in freezing the taxes when they were going UP. Our house values are going down, the property taxes should continue to go down as well.

Oh Sure wrote:

They want to freeze it now that property taxes are going DOWN. They sure weren't interested in freezing the taxes when they were going UP. Our house values are going down, the property taxes should continue to go down as well.

It appears that you don't know how property taxes are levied.

Actually I was commenting strictly off the Heading w/o reading the article - annoying, I know. The word "levies" should be in the heading. But the heading they went with is a eye catcher for sure.

cut wages of city county workers.

Wow! Whatever happened to local government control? The new majority now wants to run everything in Minnesota from the Capital. Why do we elect city councils, county boards and school boards? As always, Runbeck knows best; just trust her.

Hooray!

Celebrate!!

Fantastic!!!

Relief for "workin folk"(a term Obama learned to use as a sommunity activist )

So in addition to your party's recent defferals of LGA grants along with your proposed coninuation of deffering LGA grants, you now want to take away the only way cities and counties have to make up the money that YOU are refusing payments on? Where do you think we are going to get the money to fund the essential services YOU are responsible for covering? Get off your idiotic high horse and get to work coming up with some real solutions to the mess flawplenty left us and STOP trying to further his destructive plans for our state! If you want to live in Mississippi, go there! You do not need to turn Minnesota into the third world state you desire! We are better than this and certainly better than YOU!

It is about time we put a hold on liberals raising taxes to keep their bloated budgets in tact. GOP leadership is going to get us out of this mess. What say you Gov. Detroit.

This makes no sense. For years we have worked to cut LGA to cities because it forces those municipalities to make hard choices. If the cities choose to raise taxes then they have to explain that to their constituents, who have much greater contact with them and will hopefully throw them out. The whole idea was to return control to the local level and empower citizens to demand greater accountability.

Linda Runbeck's bill flies in the face of that theory. She is dictating local revenue decisions from the state level. I thought we Republicans were supposed to be for limited government? Why is Runbeck sending this crooked message? That is just stupid!

This Republican is an idiot. Over 50% of Washington County's budget is spent complying with unfunded and underfunded State and Federal mandates.

Really not the House's place to be doing this. If people don't like what there local officials are doing, they can vote them out. We don't need interference from the state.

their

Frozen!?! I want them to go down 30%, just like the value of my home!!!

This is a gift considering what the public government unions would face in Wisconsin.

Everyone lives within their means and no place for greed, largess, or overindulging at the trough! Cutting spending and costs will increase revenue!!

Local governments need to suck it up and get off the wagon and help pull. This is the perfect plan to get them started in the right direction!!!

Oh I see Now wrote:

Actually I was commenting strictly off the Heading w/o reading the article - annoying, I know. The word "levies" should be in the heading. But the heading they went with is a eye catcher for sure.

The heading can be presumed to be misleading and inaccurate.

This is a teachable moment for libertarianism. Libertarianism and limited government seeks to have each legislative entity mind its own business. It would be helpful to repeal unfunded mandates the state places on city and county, as well as to untangle all the fund sharing. Mandating no increase disenfranchises local voters in their management of city county affairs. Its micromanaging other governmental entities and is bad for the feds as well as the state.

The more local the government, the more accountable they are to voters.

So, the question will be, what, if anything, will the state legislature republicans do to reduce local govt costs?

Now, currently, much state money goes to these local entities as well, and that should be minimalized. This would increase property taxes, but should be accompanied by reduced taxes at the state level.

butch wrote:

...Local governments need to suck it up and get off the wagon and help pull. This is the perfect plan to get them started in the right direction!!!

Its the taxpayers who pull at all levels, but I agree we should get locals to stand on their own.

EqualRights wrote:

This Republican is an idiot. Over 50% of Washington County's budget is spent complying with unfunded and underfunded State and Federal mandates.

Along with every other county!

Great idea, but it should be left to the cities and counties to decide.

The need to reform the property tax code along with the income tax code. Both are terribly structured.

Oh Sure wrote:

They want to freeze it now that property taxes are going DOWN. They sure weren't interested in freezing the taxes when they were going UP. Our house values are going down, the property taxes should continue to go down as well.

I believe the intent here is to keep the politicians from raising the property taxes and then they are forced to balance budgets through spending cuts.

Oh Sure wrote:

They want to freeze it now that property taxes are going DOWN. They sure weren't interested in freezing the taxes when they were going UP. Our house values are going down, the property taxes should continue to go down as well.

You do realize that your home value has declined the last 2 years as well right? So then, how did your property taxes rise? St Paul increased the rates. You see, if your property value decrease 2% but St Paul increases the rate by 4%, the actual property tax in dollars will go up.

That's what the legislature is trying to prevent. As did Republicans and Pawlenty for the last 4 years running only to be blocked by DFL'ers so they could continue to claim rising property taxes as the reason for their dissent of cuts in LGA.

If the legislature does nothing, your rates will go up again this year as St Paul continues to spend more than they have. And when you yell at them, they'll point their finger at the state and say it's their fault for not funding St Paul's spending.

Freezing caps for two years is better than nothing, however, I would prefer an ongoing property tax cap in stead of a 2 year freeze. Somthing like property taxes cannot be increased more than the rate of inflation in any one year and no more than x% over a rolling five years. This would insulate property owners against paying the piper for local governments inability and/or refusal to prioritize their spending.