Friction builds over city cuts

By Mark Fischenich
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO June 15, 2009 12:00 am

— It doesn’t take a marriage counselor to know that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota’s mayors are on the rocks.
The city officials say Pawlenty — proposing deep cuts in state aid to cities — is unfairly pushing the state’s budget problem down the line, and that he is going to be responsible for idled snowplows after blizzards, laid-off cops and firemen, and higher property taxes.
Pawlenty responded by accusing the city officials of “whining,” saying they are unwilling to make the sort of tough budget decisions he’s making at the state level.
Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges has noticed Pawlenty bristles when asked to respond to city officials.
“The governor tends to get a little sensitive when people throw things back,” Hentges said.
North Mankato Mayor Gary Zellmer, who has been active in the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, has noticed, too.
“The open warfare between the cities and the governor is getting really fierce,” Zellmer said at a recent City Council meeting. “It’s almost comical.”
What won’t be funny for cities is if the growing hostility affects how the governor chooses to reduce the state budget.
Pawlenty is planning to make somewhere around $1 billion in spending cuts to eliminate projected red ink in the upcoming two-year budget. Local Government Aid, which goes to all but the wealthiest cities in the state, is destined for cuts, as is state assistance for counties, social programs and colleges, according to Pawlenty.
The precise size of the cuts to cities is the unanswered question and the answer could have a substantial impact on city budgets in the next two years. Pawlenty said before the latest round of squabbling that the cuts were likely to be somewhere between what he proposed in his original budget plan and what the DFL-controlled Legislature suggested — with the final number probably being closer to his.
It’s a big difference. Pawlenty proposed large cuts for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and even steeper reductions in 2010. The 2010 cuts would be more than $2.1 million for Mankato, $706,000 for North Mankato and $490,000 for St. Peter.
Even smaller towns would take big hits in 2010. It would be $154,000 for Janesville, for instance, and $172,000 for Lake Crystal.
The amounts proposed by the Legislature — and vetoed by the governor — are smaller. The House and Senate cut aid for 2009, but the Senate holds the LGA allocations steady in 2010. The House cuts for 2010 are $684,000 for Mankato, $216,000 for North Mankato, $97,000 for St. Peter, $21,000 for Janesville and $28,000 for Lake Crystal.
Because Pawlenty decided to make unilateral reductions known as unallotment — rather than negotiate with the Democratic-dominated Legislature in a special session — cities can’t turn to their traditional allies.
“Democrats right now are kind of irrelevant to the process,” Hentges said.
With smaller outstate cities facing extremely difficult budget choices if Pawlenty cuts aid deeply, Hentges is hopeful that Republican lawmakers might influence the governor to ease up.
“Marty Seifert and Bob Gunther and Julie Rosen and Tony Cornish, I think they should be concerned if the governor is disproportionately focusing his cuts on LGA and the cities they represent,” Hentges said, listing veteran Republican lawmakers from southern Minnesota.
Gunther, R-Fairmont, hopes the LGA cuts are closer to the House level than to Pawlenty’s original budget proposal, saying the governor will be “a gold-plated hero” if he can figure out a way to ease the reductions to that level. Gunther also told Pawlenty administration officials it would be better to target larger cities, which have more flexibility in their budgets, and suburban communities that receive other sorts of state aid.
“I said, hit the bigger cities the hardest and the smaller cities the least,” Gunther said. “And everybody has to feel the pain, so Market Value Credit (to suburbs) has to be in there.”
Still, cities have reason to be concerned, Gunther said, especially since Pawlenty isn’t running for a third term and won’t face the potential political repercussions of cuts that affect municipal services or property taxes.
“I’d be worried to heck about somebody like that,” he said.
But Gunther also echoes Pawlenty’s criticism that cities haven’t made the difficult choices required during tough economic times.
“A lot of people say there’s little evidence of cities cutting back,” he said.