Nothing new here: Counties opposing ‘unfunded mandates’

Scott County Commissioner David Beer of Prior Lake, the county board’s chairperson, stood at a podium Feb. 19 belittling the wisdom and inequity of Gov. Tim Walz’s plan to shift some human services costs to counties, a shift the commish said would likely to add to the county’s inevitable annual increase in its property tax levy.

Beer, the county board chairperson, said the practice of unfunded mandates is not sustainable. With the state expecting a budget deficit in 2027, he railed on the DFL governor for expecting county taxpayers to pick up more of the tab for human services programs the state can’t fund as it faces a looming budget deficit a few years after the legislature spent an $18 billion surplus. Scott County’s not alone in its concern.

“We would estimate those shifts costing the county around an additional $900,000, which would translate to a 3.2% levy increase,” said Le Sueur County Administrator Joe Martin. “To put that into perspective, our levy increase for the entire budget in 2025 was 3.9 percent.”

Unfunded mandates are nothing new. They’ve been around for many years. County commissioners used to kvetch about Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s unfunded mandates. Pawlenty, a suburban Republican, wanted counties and public school districts to help the state balance its books back in the early days of the 21st Century. There was a proposal school districts would only get a percentage of the annual funding they were told they would receive, and the state would, if it could, catch up with the payments the following year.

When money gets tight for the state, passing the buck down the line has long been a go-to tactic. Counties and school districts are short on cash from the state, so they turn to taxpayers.

When it was flush with cash a few years ago, rather than reduce taxes, the state used its surplus to fund a wide array of programs intended to serve a broad array of people. Had taxes been reduced in some form or another before spending whatever amount was left for programs, the DFL could have claimed it was the party reducing taxes for a broader array of taxpayers. Today, the state’s budget is facing lean times because of inflation and the Trump administration’s desire to scale back spending.

With no public discussion, Beer and his counterparts gave themselves a 6% raise for 2025 – an increase similar to the board-approved negotiated raises other county workers received. If the county wants the state to pay for everything, should the state set the wages of county workers?

Counties are creations of the state, the vehicles by which services are delivered. Scott County’s health and human services department budget is $54.86 million. The local levy pays for $22.39 million. The Scott County Jail budget is $11.03 million. The county’s levy covers $11.95 million. Confused?

The county applies cost allocation to distribute the cost of internal support services out to direct service departments. The levy amounts shown reflect this shift in cost allocation in departments where the levy amount is greater than the departmental budget, said Danny Lenz, Scott County’s deputy county administrator. Scott County Court Administration, the county jail and health and human services cost $66.5 million in 2025. The levy pays for $34.857 million.

Whether the state or county pay for it, taxpayers ultimately foot the bill. At a time when money is tight and counties oppose taking on more burden, perhaps scaling back some services to citizens and wage increases may be in order.

Hard choices would be needed. Pick a service you receive and let your county commissioner and state lawmaker know you’ll support it being cut from the budget.

More state songs? “Hail! Minnesota” was written by U of M students in 1904 and adopted as the state song in 1945. Now, a group of lawmakers are backing tunes by Bob Dylan (“Girl From the North Country”) and Prince (“Purple Rain”) to join “Hail! Minnesota” as official state songs.

How ‘bout “I want to Drive the Zamboni” (Martin Zellar and the Gear Daddies)?

Wow, things must be going silky smooth in St. Paul.