It is safe to assume most Mower County residents have never heard of county program aid (CPA) or frequent the topic as one of their family dinner discussions. However, in an age where perceptions of rising property taxes create palpable frustration, it’s important to take a glimpse into this key resource and learn how the Legislature’s attention to this topic could alleviate your property tax bill.

Property taxes have, and most likely will always be, the main source of revenue for county  operations. While counties are responsible for roads and bridges, a large majority of county spending is mandated by the state. For example, when the state mandates a county to provide essential services on its behalf -such as child protection or mental health services -but only provides a portion of the funds necessary to carry out the job, the county must divert its property tax revenue, intended for  local use, to pay for the state’s costs.

Over time, counties’ roles as administrators for state created programs have grown larger and more complex. Though legislators responsible for creating new county requirements often made sure to reimburse counties for new expenses; their successors have sometimes forgotten, leaving counties and their property tax payers footing the bill resulting in property tax increases.

Over a decade ago, Minnesota consolidated the funding for several of its mandated programs into a single program called “county program aid,” or CPA for short. The CPA program was intended to cover the costs of state programs so that counties could reserve more of their property tax dollars for programs specific to the needs of their home communities. At the time, CPA totaled $205 million and was divided up amongst all 87 counties based on a variety of need and tax base factors. More importantly, however, the creation of county program aid acted as a recognition of the vast number of duties, services and unfunded mandates that counties carry-out on a day-to-day basis and an acknowledgment that the state was responsible in shouldering some of the burden to alleviate property tax increases. In Mower County, the commissioners appropriate CPA entirely for levy reduction.

Unfortunately, legislators have neglected to keep pace with funding and Mower County has seen its aid source stay stagnant for the last decade. What’s worse is that because of uncorrected formula flaws, agricultural counties, like Mower County have been hit hard. In Mower County, aid has fallen. A decade ago Mower County received around $58.24 per person in aid. Today, that number is about $46.74 per person. The inconsistency in funding and misconception that agricultural based counties are richer, property tax wise, than all other counties is directly impacting Mower County’s ability to budget and plan for the future and continues to have an impact on your property tax bill.

This year we are asking the legislature to take a look at CPA and recommit to the program they’ve neglected to adequately fund for far too long. With the addition of new child protection mandates, mental health care cost shifts, future buffer enforcement responsibilities, and the absence of necessary transportation funding, Mower County will once again be dealing with several unfunded or underfunded state regulations. CPA is a critical tool to help offset the underfunded costs of these state requirement and we need the legislature to act! As Mower County continues to review its budget and levy for 2017, we invite you to participate in the discussions and reach out to us to learn more about the positive impact CPA has on your property tax bill.

For more information on county program aid, please talk to one of us, your county commissioners, (contact information is available at www.co.mower.rnn.us/County-Board.html) or visit www.mncounties.org/document center/Publications/CPA%20fact%20sheet.pdf.

Polly Glynn,

Chair of the Mower County Board of Commissioners