Commissioner raises alarm over costs 'shifted' to counties by state Legislature

NINA MOINI: Lawmakers at the State Capitol have just under two weeks left of the session, and they're tasked with finalizing the budget. One entity keeping a close eye on the bottom line is Minnesota's 87 counties in Scott County, which makes up the Southwest Twin Cities metro area. The Board of Commissioners recently shared with their residents that they may see an increase in property taxes based on current budget proposals. Joining me now to explain is Dave Beer. He's the chair of the Scott County Board of Commissioners. Thank you so much for your time this afternoon.

DAVE BEER: Thank you so much for having me. I will tell you, that was a very soothing Music Minute. We may need more of that after this conversation.

NINA MOINI: Oh, exactly. We like to sprinkle-- we gotta sprinkle it in, some musical breaks.

DAVE BEER: We have to. We must. We must.

NINA MOINI: We love it. Well, I know that everyone is keeping a close eye on what's going on at the Capitol right now, counties in particular. I feel like, sometimes, people may not have as much exposure to their county boards. They might maybe know their council member or their state lawmaker. What is the role of a county board in the greater scheme of how budgets are made and how money is allocated?

DAVE BEER: I will say that that question asked of me, if I had $1 for every time it was, I would have retired long ago because--

NINA MOINI: You wouldn't be here.

DAVE BEER: --you're right. It is a sort of a hidden layer of government, not intentionally, of course, but you're right. Most folks are very well-- well, or mostly aware, some very well-aware of their local city councils and so forth. And so as a county perspective, yes, we are one of 87, as you mentioned. So there's 87 counties in the state. We're all very interrelated to the state, of course, otherwise we wouldn't exist.

And for example, some of the things that we do that maybe people are aware of are we run community corrections departments, which most people maybe are more familiar with the term parole in those areas, jails, county attorney's offices, sheriffs, we do child protection. We have veterans services offices. We run dispatch. That's very important. You call 911, you want to make sure those calls are routed to public safety.

We also do a lot of which I would say really distinguishes us to some extent, counties versus cities. We are chartered with much of the HHS heavy lifting, Health and Human Services for the state at the county level, where Cities do not have to get involved with that. And then, of course, the fun part of it, the roads and the trails and the parks and the libraries and so much more. So those are a lot of functions that counties provide that most people use and just really aren't aware of who has the authority over that jurisdiction. So that's the role of the county.

And more importantly, as we're talking about some of these budget items, the counties really are the hands and feet or the service arm of the state. So all of those departments I just talked about, many of those are mandated programs, not all of them, but many of those are mandated programs that counties must provide that the state has enacted at one time or another. So that's what we do.

We exist to serve the issue that we're finding-- and it's not a new issue, but the issue we're finding is a lot of times these programs or enactments that come from the state come to the county to be done. The state tells the county, hey, you must do this because remember, if it's coming from the state, it's a law. And now it's wrapped in statute, and it's coming down to us for the county of what we must do. It's not necessarily directing outcomes, it's more directing what procedures must be followed, so-to-speak, and what services must be done.

Here's the kicker-- oftentimes, it does not come with the funding needed to run the programs. And so that's partly why you're probably having me on the program today along with others is it's not a new thing. It's not a new phenomenon. A lot of times, these programs get kicked to the counties. I don't mean to be crude, but I use the term that, a lot of times, it feels like the state has to flush twice because it's a long way to get to all these 87 counties. I know, and I hate to say it that way, but that is how it feels oftentimes when we're trying to be partners with the state.

So if these state programs and enactments-- and much of what we are super willing to do. We want outcomes. Here in Scott County, we are all about outcomes. We want transformation. We want to see transformation in people's lives because remember, we're very heavily into the HHS side of the world, so we're dealing with folks that we're the backstop for them.

So we want and do see transformation in people's lives. We do want to be a place where people experience hope, maybe for the first time, so that it's not the same old, same old, not old programs bringing old solutions, which, oftentimes, really have not been solutions at all. So we've really tried to challenge ourselves here in Scott County-- and I know other counties, but you're talking to me. So how do we do things differently? How do we look at what outcomes are we after, and then work the problem backwards to find the solutions that fit.

NINA MOINI: So, Dave, so if I could just ask, it's not uncommon for the county or a council to say, hey, you know what, we might have to go ahead and raise property taxes. But your board has written now not one but two letters to residents sharing concerns of what the county might be facing after this legislative session. Was that something new that you decided to do? Why reach out to people and what are you-- like you said, this isn't new. So are there specific programs that you're really concerned about being able to get off the ground?

DAVE BEER: Great questions. Spoiler alert, there may be more coming your way, so stay tuned for press releases. And yes, I wouldn't say it's necessarily a new thing, but it's certainly a more specific thing considering where we're at in this day and age because, as I mentioned, this is not a new phenomenon, but the size and scope that we're feeling-- and again, not just us. You're hearing from other folks that we're seeing and feeling now is seismic. It's different.

I've been doing this-- this is my ninth year, which seems like an eternity, but it's mostly good too. But many folks that have been doing this work for a long, long time have taken an unscientific poll, like, hey, have you seen the unallotments. You've seen clawbacks before. You've seen things come our way without the money. But how does this era, this window of time feel compared to some of those that you've experienced in your tenure? And to a T-- again, not scientific, but and to a T, anecdotally, this is the worst we've seen it. It's the worst we've seen it.

So for a county, when the only lever we really have to raise revenue is property tax, that puts us in a really tough spot. And I've always been a big advocate that you need to live within your means, whether your state, city, or federal, whatever, all the jurisdictions, we have to live with a balanced budget. Feds don't. The state has to find a balanced budget.

But in all of this, and we've always heard the kitchen table analogy, when you and your family need to figure out ways to tighten the belt, you do that. You find ways don't go out-- and if you can create more revenue, you do that. But oftentimes, it's OK, let's cut the cable. Let's cut to this or that. In this situation with all of these shifts-- and I'll mention a few of these to get to your second part of your question here in a minute-- all of these shifts are just that.

I think people are feeling like, oh, the state's going to be cutting some things. They feel like shift is synonymous with cut, and it isn't. It's cutting from the state budget, but only shifting it to county budgets, which means it lands in the lap of property taxes. So that's a really big deal. And we want people to be aware of that so that they can engage in the process and call the governor or call their representative, call their senators, get involved.

We're down there on a weekly basis. We'll be going-- we have a contingent going down again this week to bend any ear that we can to talk about do you understand-- we understand they're doing hard work. But do you understand when you light the green light or the red light, what that actually means down in the field to the people that we're working with? And it's important that-- and a lot of times, they don't because they're busy too. So we want to be there to provide that solution for them.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and so Dave, I do want to just make sure-- we only have about a minute left that we can get to just-- are there a couple of things that you're wondering how the county will be able to fund? And then what are you hoping for in these last couple of weeks of the session?

DAVE BEER: Yeah, great questions. And I know it's tough to do in a couple of minutes, but a couple of things we've really been working with not only the Feds but the state on is min choices, something called min choices. So somebody goes to the min choices program, and they're trying to figure out if they qualify for a disability waiver. So that program, just the disability waiver side of it is a $4 million shift to us-- not the state, just to our little old--

NINA MOINI: So that's one example.

DAVE BEER: That's one. Then, inside of that, from the federal level and the state, if we changed how we did min choices, we could save $200 million on an annual basis statewide from changing it to every year to every three years, leaving the flexibility for folks that they want to do it more often than that to do that more often than that. But folks with their medical condition isn't changing, why put them through the stress and agony with their family to do that every year, when they could do it every three and save $200 million and save a lot of stress off of their lives?

NINA MOINI: So is that one of the things that you'll be advocating for in the next couple of weeks.

DAVE BEER: Oh, we've been doing it. We've been doing it, yes. Family Medical Leave Act is another one. The Act or the [INAUDIBLE] or the Minnesota African-American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act-- say that 10 times fast. There's a lot of things-- we want to bring solutions. We don't want to be just chirping birds complaining about something. We have solutions, and we're just looking to be part of the process to provide those solutions which bring better outcomes, transformation, hope, and, guess what, at a lower cost of government. That's what we're hoping for.

NINA MOINI: All right, Dave. Thank you for stopping by. We hope you'll come back after the session and let us know what came to be. Appreciate your time.

DAVE BEER: Thank you so much for having us. Appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Dave Beer, Chair of the Scott County Board of Commissioners.