That’s the conclusion of a report just released by the Minnesota Inter-County Association (MICA).

 

At Tuesday’s county board meeting MICA Executive Director Keith Carlson said lawmakers did well this year.

 

“The session was generally good for counties. There were no cuts in state aid and levy limits were not extended,” he said. “The state’s financial position is substantially better than it was. The reserve increased from about $660 million to $810 million.”

 

Carlson said it appears the economy is picking up, which can be seen in residential real estate values and property tax projections.

 

“It’s a reversal of what it has been in the last seven years of falling residential values or very anemic growth,” he said. “For the first time since 2007, taxes on residential homesteads, particularly in cities and urban areas, are projected to grow at a faster pace than the tax base overall.”

 

Carlson said that means the balance of property taxes is about to change.

 

“That’s going to shift taxes without you, the school board or cities doing a thing on these properties,” he said. “That’s something you want to be mindful of as you go into your budget deliberations for 2015.”

 

He said the legislature failed to accomplish some things, like closing the debt gap for MNcare. 

 

“MNcare statewide was facing a $600 million deficit in the funding for that program at the start of the legislative session, “said Carlson. “They reduced it to a $200 million deficit. It’s better, but its still out there.”

 

Lawmakers failed to come through with a major transportation funding package. But they managed to provide just under $200 million for transportation under two capital budget bills, including $33 million for local bridge rehabilitation and replacement, $54.36 million for the local road improvement program and $31.5 million for the Corridors for Commerce effort to unclog about a dozen major state highway corridors. 

 

Steve Novak, transportation liaison with MICA, said lawmakers continued to avoid making a commitment to provide additional funding sources for transportation.

 

“Coming to a political solution to pass a comprehensive transportation finance bill with gas tax state-wide and a metropolitan sales tax increase has been a very difficult thing for the legislature to accomplish,” he said. “We’ve really only done it one time in the last 26 years - in 2008.”

 

Novak said the state had no problem increasing the gas tax before that.

 

“There were two or three gas tax increases per decade from the 1940s through the 1980s,” he said. “It was attempted again in the last session. 

 

The bill was heard extensively in both the House and Senate Transportation Policy committees.

 

“The package did pass and go to the tax committee in the House and Senate,” said Novak. “But it died there.”

 

Health & Human Services (HHS) received $104 million, with a large percentage going for cost of  living increases for individuals who served the elderly and disabled in their homes and their communities. 

 

Another $385,000 was allocated to HHS for simplifying documents and system-wide streamlining, which will allow for uniformity in eligibility requirements across the various income and support programs.

 

Legislators appropriated $11 million to the Dept. of Corrections to rent jail bed space from county jails to meet an unanticipated spike in the state prison population.

 

Years ago the state had the Short Term Offender Program, which put the financial responsibility on counties to provide beds for state inmates.

John Tuma of MICA said legislators did the right thing this time around.

 

“Instead of mandating it on us, they actually appropriated money for these facilities,” he said.