Recently, Gov.

Wednesday, September 05, 2001

Recently, Gov. Jesse Ventura and the State Legislature touted the property tax cuts made during the last session, while asking residents to be a watchdog for cities and counties to ensure local spending is curtailed.

It was recently announced that counties are in essence forced to pay a higher share of the University of Minnesota Extension Service salaries, from 35 percent to 40 percent. Considering that counties receive the bulk of their funding through state aid and property taxes, commissioners will have three options – dig into their reserves, raise property taxes (hard to do with levy limits in place) or cut services elsewhere.

Extension officials deny that the change is due to the lack of funding to the University of Minnesota by the legislature last summer, that counties were on schedule to take over a higher percentage of Extension costs anyway.

Linked or not, forcing counties to pay more of the Extension costs is an unfunded mandate. In other words, rather than having to explain why the state pays certain costs to residents, the Legislature and Gov. Jesse Ventura are passing the buck to local governments to explain tax increases. This is only one example of state requirements that leave local governments responsible for funding.

The University of Minnesota Extension is an important program for greater Minnesota, and it should remain intact. It just seems hypocritical that the Legislature and Gov. Jesse Ventura are harping on cities and counties to keep property taxes low, while continuing to pass bills onto them.