|
Growing demands meet declining resources
 The board adopted a $307.5 million budget today for 2011 that pares staffing back to 2001 levels and cuts the operating portion of the budget by 5 percent.
This is despite the fact that the county’s population has increased by fifty thousand people in the past decade, and demand for everything from child protection to library services is up significantly because of the poor economy.
The downsized budget anticipates a significant decrease in state funding as the state addresses a more than $6 billion budget gap. Sixty county jobs will be eliminated in 2011. This is on top of the 60 jobs cut last year. Dakota County traditionally has the lowest number of employees per capita of any metropolitan county. This is also the second year in a row that spending on operations is being cut 5 percent.
The County’s portion of the property tax levy will increase by just 0.8 percent, to $129.4 million, meaning that county taxes payable in 2011 on a median-valued home will be a few dollars less than this year.
Dakota County has long had the lowest property tax rate in the state. The budget commissioners passed today is aimed at continuing that trend while maintaining core services in the face of declining external revenue. |
This page was last updated on: 12/20/2010
|
|