Greetings from Le Sueur County:
With the State Legislature in session, we are closely monitoring what the Minnesota House, Senate and Governor do and its impact upon counties. Minnesota counties must carry out several state and federal mandates. Some of these mandates come with corresponding funding, but many do not or are only partially funded. Unlike state and federal governments who are funded with income taxes, county governments must primarily rely on property tax revenue. Thus, partially or unfunded state and federal mandates require us to raise property taxes to pay for mandatory services.
The biggest budgetary concern is in the Human Services area, which currently accounts for around 16 percent of the County’s overall property tax levy. The Governor’s preliminary budget proposes shifting several Human Services related costs back to the County. In our analysis, we estimate this to be around $900,000, which translates to a levy increase of 3.2 percent. To put that into perspective, our entire budget increase for all county operations in 2025 was 3.9 percent.
Additionally, the 2024 Legislature passed a new unfunded mandate that is set to take effect in 2027 as it relates to how the County administers child protection services. This unfunded mandate would require the County to hire many new staff and is estimated to cost the county up to $1.8 million. Adding these two new mandates together, we are looking at around $2.7 million in increased annual Human Services related costs, which equates to a 9.6 percent levy increase.
We have shared our information and concerns with our state elected officials and would hope that those in St. Paul who make the laws and decide on the level of services also fund those mandates with state revenue, rather than shifting those costs onto local property taxpayers.
In other legislative news, the County is working with the Governor’s Office, Senator Rich Draheim and Representative Terry Stier to secure $2 million in state bonding money that could be used as a match for an additional $10 million in potential federal U.S. Economic Development Administration funding for the County to begin the long process of flood mitigation efforts.
If these funds can be secured, the goal would be to engineer and manipulate targeted lands to hold and slow water in the Cannon River watershed, with the goal of reducing the impacts of flooding. The funds would likely be used to manipulate certain lands, build structures to hold water, and pay willing landowners for easements on these targeted lands to slow and hold water during high precipitation events.
Over the last several months, the County, working with several partners, are close to finalizing a formal flood study that will scientifically show the amount of water that needs to be managed to reduce flooding impacts. We have also begun the process of identifying high priority areas that might be candidates for water storage. If you are a landowner in one of these identified areas, you can expect to receive a letter with an invitation to a meeting to begin discussions. While we would all like a quick and easy solution to flooding, this process will likely take many years to complete.
In other news, the Board of Commissioners acted on several items of business during the month of February. Within the Environmental Services area, the Board approved accepting $542,000 in State funds to be used for a stream study, sealing an old well in the City of Le Sueur and conducting studies to improve water quality on the following lakes: Clear, Francis, Tetonka, Sakatah, German/Jefferson, and Volney. The Board also approved a contract with Waterguards LLC to conduct 3,000 hours of aquatic invasive species inspections at several lakes.
The Board also held a public hearing regarding redetermination of benefits and damages on county ditch 40 in Montgomery Township, and discussed a potential major ditch clean out of county ditch 4 and 64 above Scotch Lake.
Finally, the Board approved a contract with Inspire Services to pilot a jail-based substance use treatment program. The program is focused on structured peer group and individual counseling services, with funding coming from opioid legal settlement dollars. Additionally, the Board approved an updated Joint Powers Agreement with Waseca County in relation to the implementation of the Community Health Board.