At its May 19 regular meeting, the Pope County Board of Commissioners discussed the work of the Minnesota Legislature after the Senate and House recently adjourned for the 2025-2026 biennium.
The Board and Administration expressed appreciation for the Legislature’s support of a major local transportation project in its bonding bill, as well as for the Legislature’s preservation of County Program Aid allowing for the County to deliver local property tax relief to residents and landowners.
At the same time, the County notes that some significant costs, mainly in the form of Human Services spending, are still slated to shift to County taxpayers instead of State and Federal sources, unless changes are made in St. Paul or in Washington, D.C.
Pope County and its Board of Commissioners will remain engaged with the Federal and State governments and their Legislators locally and through the County’s participation in the Association of Minnesota Counties to advocate for the County and its residents and taxpayers to advance priorities that benefit our local community.
An explanation of how the County’s major legislative priorities fared this 2026 session is provided below:
Mixed Results in Preventing Additional Cost-Shifts for State-Mandated Services
Pope County was concerned that state and federal budget decisions will continue to shift the cost of mandated human services to counties, forcing property tax increases as the only available funding mechanism.
While the State has agreed to fund human services technology infrastructure in the next biennium that should increase efficiency and enhance service delivery by County-based Human Services staff, and the State provided some relief for additional administrative expenses and burdens related to delivery of SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the State and Federal governments did not prevent cost-shifts to the County in other Human Services expenses, such as the costly increased share of actual benefit costs for the SNAP program and the significant expenses for the LTSS, or Long-Term Services and Supports program for medical and personal care services.
The State Fully Maintained County Program Aid (CPA) for local property tax relief
County Program Aid provides essential property tax relief for state-mandated services. Without CPA, Pope County estimates property tax levies would increase by at least an additional 6% on average.
Thankfully, no proposals to eliminate or reduce this critical property tax relief program were successful, and the State will continue to fund this program to help the County pay for mandated services and mitigate property tax burdens.
Significant Single-Project Transportation Support, but no Transportation Omnibus Bill
Over 90% of Minnesota’s road miles and 80% of its bridges are owned by local governments, yet current funding is insufficient to maintain them. Therefore, Pope County supported increased, dedicated funding for rural transportation, expanded use of bonding for rural projects, and local option sales tax reforms that do not disadvantage rural areas.
Pope County was pleased to see that a significant local project, the improvement of 210th Avenue in the City of Glenwood and in Leven and Glenwood Townships, was granted millions of dollars in State support in the $1.2 billion “bonding bill” this session. However, structural inequities still exist in State support of local road infrastructure, and the County will continue to encourage the State to commit to sufficient funding of local road systems through additional bonding, dedication of increased funding specifically for rural transportation, and reform of local option sales taxes to benefit all rural areas, and not just regional centers.
Solid Waste Management Tax Revenue Still Not Wholly Dedicated to Its Intended Purpose
Because counties rely on Solid Waste Management Tax (SWMT) revenue to fund SCORE, or Select Committee on Recycling and the Environment programs, and meet state waste management goals, Pope County believes 100% of SWMT revenue should be dedicated to waste management, not diverted to general fund purposes.
Unfortunately, a significant portion of the SWMT remains diverted to the State’s general fund instead of to solid waste purposes, although the Legislature did establish a rebate program for waste-to-energy facilities like Pope and Douglas Counties’ that divert certain materials from mixed municipal solid waste.