Freeborn County can now appoint auditor-treasurer and recorder

The over $48 billion state budget includes — or left out — several components that will affect Albert Lea and Freeborn County residents, local legislators said.

Opinion is split on the proposed gas tax increase, which did not make its way into the state budget.

District 27A Rep.Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, called this one of the big successes of the session.

“I think for our area in particular, that would have been really harmful being so close to the border,” she said.

Additionally, Bennett said, people who live in rural Minnesota tend to do a lot of driving.

District 27 Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, said whether or not people supported the gas tax, the “lights-on” bill for transportation passed will make it harder for county engineers and highway departments to get projects done.

“Our roads and bridges are kind of deteriorating at a rate that we cannot continue to have,” Sparks said.

Freeborn County Administrator Tom Jensen said from a county perspective, the transportation bill was not what was hoped for.

“There was no real addressing the black hole that we’re getting into with our local roads and bridges and how our funding is running out,” Jensen said, citing the 40% of roads he said have depreciated past their useful life that the county does not have money to fix. “… The gas tax was not popular, but it’s a funding mechanism that wasn’t put in, so we’ll be hopeful for the next session.”

Still, the budget included further aid to counties in the form of county program aid.

“That is money that we don’t have to include in the local levy,” Jensen said.

The state also provided further funding for the city, as Sparks said the legislature restored local government aid to 2002 levels.

“Both of those were big wins for our local units of government,” Sparks said.

He said this could help the city keep property taxes at a reduced rate.

Albert Lea City Manager Chad Adams said the direct impact on the city would be an additional $189,000 for the city in 2020 in local government aid.

“That’s pretty significant, because that will help the council and the community moving forward in terms of budgeting and hopefully keeping tax levies down in the future,” Adams sid.

He called a request for restored LGA funding one of the most significant policy requests made by the city to the state legislature for the last five to 10 years.

“We were going into the 2020 budget expecting a tax levy increase to some substance,” Adams said. “… It will likely now be tempered by this government aid increase.”

A levy increase may not be entirely eliminated, Adams said, but LGA should help. Still, the budgeting process is in too early a stage to tell what that may look like.

There were also funding allocations made to economic development programs utilized in the past by the city, including the Minnesota Job Creation Fund and Minnesota Investment Fund.

The city has previously used the Job Creation Fund to benefit Mortarr and the Minnesota Investment Fund for AmTech Ingredients. Additionally, Adams said, the low-interest loans that come out of a MIF program allow the city to keep some of those loan payments and loan that money back out to someone else. MIF money may also be used in the future for an expansion project planned with Albert Lea Select Foods, he said.

“To see those restored with additional funding is just going to help us use those tools for projects here in the community,” Adams said.

 

Broadband, childcare and beyond

The budget also included an additional $10 million investment in rural broadband, which Bennett said people in the Albert Lea area like to see. Sparks said funding for broadband is important for rural schools and businesses.

“That’s gonna go a long ways again in making sure that some areas that are underserved or unserved are able to compete,” Sparks said.

According to Bennett, the Legislature also designated $30.8 million for the Economic Development and Housing Challenge, or Challenge Program, a fund source to help advance workforce housing development.

“We are, you know, our community leaders and some of our business leaders say that we have a shortage here of … workforce housing, and I think that they’ll appreciate that,” Bennett said.

The budget included funding for childcare economic development grants, which provides funding to local communities to increase the supply of quality childcare providers. Priority is given to communities with shortages, Bennett said.

Jensen said he anticipates an increase in training money for child welfare staff will make a big impact on small and local communities.

“Getting our folks any little bit of money helps on our part of that,” Jensen said.

Furthermore, the county is now able to make appointments to the county auditor-treasurer and recorder’s office. Jensen said the positions are very important ones in the county. The Freeborn County auditor-treasurer’s office has an average of $1.6 million going through it each week, he said. The recorder handles land records and deeds and manages nine computer systems, he said. Appointing people to the office means the county can implement further requirements for those to hold the position.

“It’s a benefit for everybody in the county to have some person with a skill level that is appropriate for that position,” Jensen said.

Further decisions applicable to the region are:

The approved agriculture budget included $500,000 for rural mental health grants, Bennett said.

The session ended without a proposed $68 million in cuts to nursing facilities that Bennett said would have hurt local nursing homes.

Bennett said there were budget items and policy changes those on both sides of the aisle did not achieve.

“They pretty much said anything controversial is going to be out — out of the picture,” Bennett said. “So, a lot of these policy initiatives just didn’t happen.”

For Bennett, this produced a win in her fight against a comprehensive K-12 sex education program that she called a “victory for parental choice and parental authority” to retain charge at the local level.

The Legislature provided funding to continue the Minnesota Reinsurance Program, which partially reimburses insurers in the individual health insurance market in an effort to stabilize premiums.

The Shell Rock River Watershed District will receive approximately $2 million through Minnesota’s Legacy funds, Sparks said.