County commissioners are looking at a property tax hike to make up for the loss of General Medical Assistance from the state. Many of them had harsh words for Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
For 2010, a year in which county tax assistance will deliver two new suburban libraries and the Twins’ new open-air ballpark, Hennepin County is considering a reduced budget to hold down spending in the face of the weak economy.
County Administrator Richard Johnson presented a $1.6 billion budget Tuesday to the county board for next year, down about 6 percent from this year’s $1.71 billion.
But even after cutting 163 jobs and reducing capital improvements, the county still needs to raise property taxes by 3 percent solely to pay increased costs at Hennepin County Medical Center, Johnson said.
Those higher costs were caused by the state’s cancellation of General Medical Assistance for poor adults, he said.
Hearing that, county commissioners began their budget deliberations by blasting Gov. Tim Pawlenty again for shifting the state’s budget problems to them. The county estimates that 40 percent of the state’s poor adults who were covered by General Medical Assistance live in Hennepin County.
The tax increase is required “just because the governor cut the legs out” from under thousands of low-income adults who depended on General Medical Assistance, Commissioner Gail Dorfman said.
Commissioner Peter McLaughlin said that “people need to understand that the county doesn’t operate in a vacuum.”
In the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s, the county’s tax revenues have gone down and the demand for services from people who have lost jobs has gone up, McLaughlin said.
While the county is doing its part by cutting staff and putting off improvements, McLaughlin said, state government is giving counties and cities less money.
Rather than raising state taxes, Pawlenty is “balancing the state budget on the backs of property taxpayers in counties and cities,” McLaughlin said.
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