November 16, 2007

Policy work on property taxes, fiscal disparities and more

Beyond Property Taxes

The 2007 homeowner property tax review by the Citizens League has expanded greatly this year - and has gotten a lot of press. The survey covers nearly 350 cities and towns in Minnesota and at least one city in every county. For the first time it is organized by city cluster for better comparative value (see Table 3 on our website). But we have also done a lot more than look at property taxes. Through the MAP 150 project, we found out what citizens wanted to know and provided basic data on the 99 school referenda that were voted on throughout the state on November 6. In addition, we have tracked special assessments as a complement to our property tax data and now have 2001-2006 available for all the cities and towns in the property tax review. To check out all the data, go to our homepage at www.citizensleague.org.

Fiscal Disparities

The Citizens League recently joined with the Minnesota Chapter of NAOIP (National Association of Office and Industrial Properties) to produce an important information piece on fiscal disparities, the regional tax base sharing program that was created out of the 1969 Citizens League report "Breaking the Tyranny of the Local Property Tax." The tax bill that was vetoed at the end of last session included a study of fiscal disparities and there was also a provision to use fiscal disparities to subsidize the Mall of America which the Governor mentioned in his veto message. The elevated interest in fiscal disparities called for timely information, which we hope this provides.

Save the Date! Policy Happens Here: The Citizens League Policy Open House

On February 28, 2008, the Citizens League will hold the inaugural Policy Open House from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at St. Paul College, just off the Kellogg Avenue exit from I-94 in St. Paul. This event will lay out the Citizens League policy agenda and provide an opportunity for you to help the Citizens League discover how "Policy Happens Everywhere." Please plan on coming by for 15 minutes or 4 hours. There will be everything from information tables to policy creation.

Annual Meeting Recap Part Deux

Thanks to everyone who gave us their feedback on our October 24th annual meeting! We received many compliments and lots of good criticism. You can read a summary of the feedback on our website and add comments on Sean's blog post about the event.

Posted by Victoria Ford at November 16, 2007 5:36 PM