WDIO TV called as I was putting on the finishing touches to the big blog entry of the day. I invited them over to say on video pretty much what I wrote about. I was so long winded it will be a chore for them to tease out a good sound bite. If they post the story tonight I’ll link to it tomorrow no matter how ungenerous it makes me look.
When the news crew arrived I was on the phone with a friend who just had to talk to me about the travails facing Duluth. He mentioned the near certainty of the City’s loss of LGA (Local Government Aid) from the state. Its ammounts to $30 million dollars in Duluth’s budget. Most of this money goes to the state’s big three cities. In January the Republicans will take over both houses of the legislature for the first time since I was in college 40 years ago. They will have to budget cut with a machete. About the only Democrats left in the legislature are the ones in the minority who represent the LGA hungry cities. Look for more local tax hikes when Duluth loses LGA. Good luck passing an operational levy for the School District. it took Faribault five years to do it after Dr. Dixon left and that city was facing tax hikes from the loss of LGA funds.
