At a meeting of the Le Sueur County Officials Association, State Senator Rich Draheim (22, R) and State Rep. Terry Stier (22B, R) were present to share information from the state legislature that affects the area. The meeting was held Dec. 3 at Le Sueur City Hall.
“I don’t want to say it was the most confusing year, but probably the most uncertain year I have seen in my nine years,” Draheim said, noting the size of the state government has tripled in funding since he took office in 2017.
Both Draheim and Stier highlighted cost shifts as the biggest concern for local governments. Adding to city and county budgets would force those governments to raise taxes to fill the gaps created.
“Toward the end of the session, we had a lot of cost shifts that were coming down to the counties. Le Sueur, Blue Earth, Rice — everybody was meeting at the Capitol saying we have to stop this.
“To me, we have to get back to the basics,” Draheim said. “We’re pushing down way too much onto our local entities to take up some of the slack from the state. We just keep on adding and adding, and at some point we’re going to have to call ‘Uncle.’”
The efforts to shift costs this year were thwarted.
Additionally, Draheim noted that they aren’t able to predict what changes the federal government will make. “We don’t know what the feds are doing. We don’t know what is going to be charged back to the state.”
Le Sueur County Commissioner Dennis Tietz asked about what was being done about mental healthcare, noting the area needs more beds for mental health patients.
Draheim noted he had proposals to have a...
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