Governor Tim Walz told a meeting of county officials Wednesday that his budget proposal will increase state aid to counties 30 million dollars — the same amount he promised earlier to cities. We asked Anoka County Commissioner Scott Schulte, president of the Association of Minnesota Counties, does that mean property taxes would go down? “We can’t always say what’s gonna happen with the levy, whether it’s gonna go up or down, because there’s a lot of things in play,” Schulte says, “but we can assure you that every dollar received in County Program Aid does offset property tax levies.”
Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka says the *size* of the governor’s expected request — 30 million dollars, is what he has concerns about. “There’s gonna be a lot of requests. One of the things we look at with the governor’s budget is, is he spending beyond where we think growth should be,” Gazelka says.