David both you and Skyway News are misleading citizen's when you bring up NRP in relation to LGA and general fund cuts.
Local government aid goes into the general fund. NRP doesn't come out of the general fund. It comes out of the Common Project at MCDA, which is in turn funded primarily from TIF excess revenues.
Now the mayor can reshift resources at the MCDA (such as the $4 million levy voted on for the agency last year) in order to fund NRP but the funding hasn't come out of the general fund for that program now, or in the past.
I think it is very misleading for you to suggest otherwise. I can't help but wonder if you are doing that just to get folks riled up and commenting on the list. Oh and by the way MCDA currently gets no general fund money from the city. The levy is a separate development levy.
Lisa McDonald
East Harriet
----- Original Message -----
From: List ManagerSent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 12:19 PMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [Mpls] State deficit, local problemsThe state has a forecast $4.5 billion budget deficit between now and June
30, 2005. Local government aids ‹ 30-plus percent of the city's budget -
will almost certainly be cut by the state.
So....what should the city cut? Or how much should it raise taxes above the
already blockbuster 8-percent-total-property-tax revenue rise?
NRP will seem an appealingly big target, at $15 million per year. However,
there are legislative issues (NRP is not just a city program, it's a joint
powers agreement with schools, county and state). Also, as neighborhood
people will undoubtedly point out, NRP is not a gratuitous appropriation, it
is a participatory way of allocating city resources, so "cutting" it may cut
out citizens without necessarily targeting the right spending.
At this point, I am not advocating any solution - I'm more interested in
list members' posts serving as an informal "budget summit."
David Brauer
List manager
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