Should Minnesota end LGA funding now?
Minnesota's unique way of giving state aid to cities - the Local Government Aid or LGA program - has been dwindling. Should LGA just end?
State leaders developed LGA back in the 1960s to keep local property taxes down and provide essential funding for cities (a good history can be found here).
But over the last two years, state budgets have cut LGA to cities. The state faces a deficit in the coming budget cycle of $5.8 billion. LGA seems poised to be slashed again. Meanwhile, cities shut off street lights or reach out to citizens for help balancing budgets. A League of Minnesota Cities report talks about the dire financial circumstances facing cities.
Insight Now has experimented with its space to hold live online discussions. Now we have a new experiment to try - we call it InContext. I try to explain the format of this debate at the bottom of this page. But, the short version is... we need you to make the conversation work.
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Today at noon we put this position on the table: Minnesota must end the LGA program.
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Arguing for this position is Chuck Marohn, planner and president of Community Growth Institute in Baxter and author of the Strong Towns blog. Arguing against the position is Don Reeder, communications manager for the League of Minnesota Cities and co-author of the Cities Matter blog.
Join this first attempt at putting a debate InContext:
Explaining the online debate format - InContext
The concept is simple we start with an extreme position. We invited two people to argue for and against that position. Then we invite all of you to help put that position in better context. By finding some common ground, we can move this discussion forward. Here's more on the format:
These debates can be held on any number of issues discussed here. And the goal is to put them InContext.