ST. PAUL &045; There are many areas of Gov. Pawlenty’s budget which are being heavily criticized at the moment. Beneficiaries of state funding, state offices and local governments are all pushing hard to get the proposed cuts on their funding taken out of the plan.

For the city of Albert Lea, the main concern at the moment is local government aid (LGA).

Thursday, Mayor Jean Eaton went to the Capitol to deliver a resolution from the city council voicing opposition to the use of &uot;aberrant&uot; data in creating the formula for the city’s cut in LGA funding. She gave copies to Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, Tax Committee Chairman Rep. Ron Abrams, R-Minnetonka, and the governor’s office.

Eaton said she hopes the numbers will be changed.

Abrams said he was aware of the data issues and those would be looked into.

Dan Salomone, the Commissioner of Revenue, said the unique situations will have to be addressed.

&uot;Some cities may have a very unique circumstance,&uot; he said about the atypical data that was collected for some cites in making LGA cutting estimates.

Albert Lea received a high estimate for cuts, with almost $2.5 million, or 20 percent of the city’s budget, slated for cuts for 2004.

The atypical data is due mostly the state giving back $10.3 million in public safety pension funds back to Albert Lea in 2000. It is the 2000 revenue data that the governor’s LGA cutting formula is using.

&uot;We know the data isn’t perfect,&uot; Salomone said. He referred to a similar struggle back in the early 1990s when city leaders from around the state had the same complaints.

Salomone did say that depending on the situation and the range of data problem, that aberrant data issues would be considered.

&uot;If a data problem is not a widespread problem, I think it’s something we will be able to work on,&uot; he said.

According to data that Dorman supplied, Albert Lea is one of 19 cities in the state that received the over-payments in 2000. But Albert Lea ranks second, only to Bloomington, in the amount of revenue the payment from the state created. Dorman said he thinks this situation should help the chances for a change in the city’s cuts.