How Should St. Louis Park Spend Its $459K in Extra State Money?

Changes to the formula that the state uses for local government aid money and increased funding for the program mean St. Louis Park will go from zero local government aid in 2013 to $458,807 in 2014, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

The omnibus tax bill—which passed the Minnesota Senate 36-30 just a few minutes before midnight Monday, the legislative session's legal deadline—pumps $80 million more into the local government aid (LGA) program. The aim is to help cities lower property taxes.

Click on the PDF to the right of this article to see a full breakdown of how cities across the state will fare.

The bill also bars most cities from increasing their levies by more than 3 percent this fall.

The extra LGA money is just a hair less than planned under an earlier version of the bill, which would’ve given St. Louis Park $459,269.

The city hasn’t received any LGA since 2003—when it received $587,951, according to House Research’s Local Government Aid Lookup tool.

How do you think St. Louis Park should use the money? Should it go toward offsetting the cost of an existing expense in order to lower property taxes? Or is there a new amenity, program or service you’d like to see it used for? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.